Home Is Where the Heart Is
by When I Make It Shine
Summary: Avalon Carson's life has been a series of twists and turns. Married at 16, divorced at 18 and back in Chicago living something straight out of an episode of 'Full House' at 29, she is the official guardian of her eleven year old goddaughter. With everything in uproar, will she be able to move forward or will it all come to a halt when she encounters the ex she never truly got over?
1. How do you lose and eleven year old?

A/N: Hey everyone! So despite the fact that I have yet to complete 'a Controlled Burn' I am posting a new fanfiction for you guys. I hope you guys enjoy it! Please feel free to review, favorite or follow :)- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I do not own Chicago Fire, any recognizable characters, or any of the songs mentioned. I do however own the characters of Avalon, Emily, and the rest of the Carson family.

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Grey eyes squinted in frustration as the 2007 Nissan Maxima rolled down Mason Boulevard, turning left onto Kingston Avenue as the chorus of One Direction's "Story of My Life" played through the sound system, what could be half described as a harmony coming from the backseat where two young girls near howled along. With all plans of a quiet lunch in her office and an examination of the new 'Colonial America: Life In New England' exhibit on hold, Avalon Carson sighed, cursing whoever had supposedly chaperoned her niece's field trip to Firehouse 5. The term chaperoned was used loosely. How the hell did one loose an eleven year old? Did they not perform headcounts before the bus pulled away? Watching the road before her for Firehouse 51, she flicked her directional light on and pulled to the side of the road when she found it, throwing her car into park and removing her keys from the ignition before just sitting for a moment, pinching the bridge of a freckle spattered nose.

"Sarah, Taylor, I want you to exit on Sarah's side but not until I open the door," she instructed, absolutely refusing to leave the eight and five year old in her car alone. Shouldering her purse and jingling her keys she peered in her side view mirror before exiting, closing the driver's side door with a little bit of a slam. Crossing along the rear she opened the back door, nudged aside as her niece's shoved each other to get out.

Locking the Nissan behind them, Avalon led the way up the long drive way to the door marked 'Visitors,' holding it open and following the girls inside. Glancing around she herded the two towards the reception desk, smiling at the secretary who smile with raised eyebrows.

"Are you Miss Bryant's guardian?" she asked kindly, laying a flower topped pen down on a pile of paper work.

"Yes m'am, you must be Connie. Thank you so much for calling me so quickly. I can't believe the school forgot Emily here and still hasn't called me."

Connie chuckled, white teeth flashing in her dark face. "No worries sweetheart. When she realized what happened she went right up to one of our Lieutenant's and asked him if he could point her in the direction of a phone so that she could call you. Unfortunately he was called out but he did ask that I make sure she was picked up. She's in the break room; would you like me to retrieve her?"

Watching Sarah and Taylor out of her peripheral Avalon nodded, uttering a 'yes please' as she rolled her shoulders. How her day had simply gone from going over plans for the museums newest exhibit to picking up her brother's daughters and then retrieving her goddaughter was beyond her. It was like the curse of a Monday. Thankful that her boss had allowed her to take a half day and continue her paper work outside the office she fought a yawn, pondering how she would deal with three young girls and the drafts she was supposed to finish.

"Aunt Ava!" chimed the familiar voice of Emily Bryant, her goddaughter. Turning towards the direction of the voice, Ava felt a wave of relief rush through her.

"Emily! Are you alright?" Two years of legal guardianship had yet to lessen the maternal instincts when it came to Emily. Avalon thought for the briefest of moments that the last time she had been that frightened was when she had picked Emily up from school and brought her to the hospital, sitting with her in the waiting room as Emily's parents were worked on just passed a set of double doors.

Emily's azure blue eyes danced in semi-amusement. "Mrs. Anderson forgot me and I got to hang out with the members of Truck 81, Squad 3 and Ambulance 61," the fifth grader remarked. "Other than the fact that my teacher was dumb enough not to make sure I was in her custody, my day has been awesome!"

Laughing at the eleven year old's reaction, Avalon drew her into a close embrace, resting her chin on the shorter girls head for the briefest moment. "Well I guess that's good to hear. What do you say to Miss. Connie?"

Thanking Miss. Connie Emily shouldered the backpack that had been dangling at her side, placing a plastic fire helmet on Taylor's face with a chuckle as the youngest girl shrieked in laughter as it covered her eyes. "Can we go get lunch? I finished all my snacks earlier."

Blinking owlishly, Avalon shook her head. "Thanks again Connie. Alright girls, to the car," she instructed, mentally taking note of Connie's name and the address of the firehouse. She would have to send some sort of thank you in the near future.

Calling out as her three charges attempted to bolt towards the car Avalon cursed, waving to a chuckling Connie as she also prepared herself for the call she would be placing to Walker Elementary School when she got back to her apartment.

* * *

Lieutenant Kelly Severide was tired and sore, his turnouts covered in soot and his exposed flesh tinged with a dark, dusty coating from the latest call. His head pounding, all he wanted to do was curl up on his bunk for a much needed nap after a few Advil. Stripping down to his in-house uniform he hung his turnouts up in the closet, picking up his boots and walking with them in hand towards the break room, taking a right at the last moment and pausing in the lobby as Connie hung up one of the phones, transferring a line to the Chief's office.

"Good afternoon Lieutenant Severide," she greeted without looking in his directions.

Having given up years ago on trying to figure out how she did that Kelly nodded. "Afternoon Connie. Quick question, has that student from Walker been picked up yet?"

"Miss. Bryant's aunt picked her up about fifteen minutes ago," she paused for a moment. "I would hate to be that principle," she giggled.

Kelly chuckled and shook his head, briefly occupying the thought of being a fly on the wall for that conversation. "Well that's good. If anyone's looking for me I'll be in my bunk," he yawned, hesitating. "Well after I take a quick shower… I smell like smoke and melted plastic."

The motherly woman made no comment but smiled as she shooed him away, watching as he sniffed at his tee shirt with a wrinkled nose.

* * *

"So I have the rest of the day off?" Emily Bryant repeated with a grin, a dot of ketchup coloring her lips as she spoke around a mouthful of turkey sandwich.

Avalon nodded from her place by the counter top, her cell phone laying beside her cutting board as she sliced another sandwich into petite triangles for Taylor. "Yup, and your teacher is supposedly in a world of trouble for leaving you behind. You will be excused from all homework from today, as well as the essay you were supposed to write about fire safety." When Emily began to cheer she smirked. "Although I believe it would be in good character to write a letter of thanks to Firehouse 51."

Ignoring the sight of Emily pulling a funny face from her peripheral, Avalon picked up her own plate and wandered over to where her nieces were eating, setting down her plate before going over to the hutch in the corner of her living room. Extracting a stationary note pad and a working pen she set it on a clean corner of the counter, motioning to it for Emily's benefit. Biting into her sandwich she watched as Emily finished hers, setting her plate in the sink and washing her hands before picking up the stationary. As Emily sat tapping her pen against her bottom lip Avalon grinned, turning to occupy Sarah and Taylor, relieved that Emily seemed to like Chicago just a little bit better. Breaking up a debate on whether Big Time Rush was better than One Direction Avalon chuckled, wondering how she had ended up in this situation.

Twenty minutes later as Avalon was putting away the last of the freshly washed dishes in silence (Taylor and Sarah were in the living room, transfixed by an episode of 'Boy Meets World') Emily called her over. Brandishing the stationary pad the eleven year old smirked, fingers covered in ink figures from her doodling as she handed the pad over.

Skimming the small, childlike hand writing Avalon silently mouthed the words before setting the stationary down with a small grin. "Just sign your name to it and we'll put it in an envelope. We can drop it off Saturday before we go to Mom and Dad's."

The pen moving with an exaggerated flourish, Emily set it on the table in the entry way before darting off to watch television with her 'cousins,' making an off handed comment on how cute the character Shawn was. Shaking her head and praying that Emily didn't go through the bad boy phase like she had, Ava finished cleaning up and wandered towards the living room, curling up in her worn Lay-Z-Boy and absently twisting the silver infinity ring that she should have gotten rid of years ago. It was incredibly simple for a wedding ring but that had been just what she had wanted. Zoned out, she recalled the wonderfully blue eyes and boyish smile that had drawn her to her ex in the first place. Regretting her train of thought Avalon idly tapped her fingers against her knee, wondering once more why she had returned to Chicago.

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A/N: So here it is, Chapter One of 'Home is Where the Heart is.' I hope you guys like it and are interested in reading a little more. Reviews are welcome as is constructive criticism. Thank you-Alisabeth


	2. The One That Got Away

A/N: So here is chapter two! Before moving on I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed the first chapter, and added this to their favorites/ followed lists. I will also be including a picture of who I see as Avalon on my profile if anyone would like to check it out. And with the New Year beginning in just under eight hours I'd like to wish all my readers a happy, safe and prosperous 2014- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I have no ownership over the NBC drama 'Chicago Fire.' I only own the concept of Emily, Avalon and the Carson's as well as the plot

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Avalon swore as she darted around her apartment, her high heels creating a resounding clip on hardwood as she moved between the bathroom to get ready, the living room to shut the appliances down and the kitchen to clean up the remnants of breakfast. A hand reaching for something sturdy as she tripped over Emily's puppy Castiel, she groaned, swinging her purse up her shoulder to rest in the crook of her neck. Glancing around in search of Emily she blew a loose strand of dark auburn hair from in front of grey eyes, calling out to her niece.

"In a minute!" Emily called back as the light from her room went out and she emerged, a little drawstring backpack settled between her shoulders and her black hair bouncing in a short ponytail. "Are we still going to the firehouse?"

Routing through the pockets of her pea coat as it hung in the hall closet Avalon poked her head out with a triumphant cheer as she found them. "If we can be out of the house in the next minute and spend no more than ten at the firehouse we can stop by before we go to my parent's." She had always been hesitant to use the term 'your grandparents,' especially where Emily had only spent time with them about a dozen times and both her maternal and paternal grandparents were already dead. Performing a visual sweep to make sure they hadn't left anything on she nodded. "Alright, let's go."

Taking the stairs carefully as Emily skipped down in front of her Avalon turned to double check the lock on the door, calling a good morning to their landlord as the petite, elderly woman worked amongst her roses. Getting into her Maxima, keying up the ignition and waving once more to Caroline the landlord she furrowed her brow, pulling out of the drive way as she was suddenly hit with a bout of nerves. Unable to figure out why she was suddenly nervous she stopped at a red light, turning left onto Brookdale.

Kelly Severide fought a yawn as he changed into a fresh uniform for his next shift, the clock tolling eight a.m from the other end of the locker room. His blue eyes skimming his coworkers as they shuffled in he shared a nod with Jeff Clarke as he stepped up to the locker beside Kelly, not saying a word but rather quietly sipping from a travel mug of what smelled like coffee. Tugging a short sleeved, navy blue shirt over his head Kelly felt his muscles twitch, pressing against the fresh-from-the-drier shirt until it sat comfortably against his bulk. Idly commenting about the Bears game from the night before, he straddled the bench and deftly laced up his in-house boots. Adjusting his St. Florian pendant so that it rested against his chest beneath his shirt, he made his way to the break room, pouring himself a cup of coffee before situating himself in a corner with the morning paper.

Occasionally giving his input for the conversations going on around him Kelly remained in his corner for the greater part of two hours. He was in the middle of a round of cards with the rest of Squad 3 when the overhead PA system crackled to life.

"Visitors on the floor," announced Connie, a smile clear in her voice.

Curiosity seemed to get the better of everyone as they stood, moving through the double doors into the apparatus bay as a cohesive unit. Gathering in the space to the left of Engine 51, eyebrows rose and a murmur passed through the group at the sight of a tall, red headed woman standing with the girl, Emily, from the other day. Being the first to notice them Emily beamed, tugging at the left hand of her companion, whispering something quickly. The first thing Kelly noticed about her when she glanced in the direction of the firefighters was the brilliant, charcoal grey of her eyes and how there was just something about her that he couldn't put his finger on. When she cleared her throat and stepped forward with a hand outstretched, it hit him like a bag of bricks and forced him to bite his tongue, the metallic taste of blood sliding along his taste buds.

"My name is Avalon Carson, Emily's aunt, I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for looking after her when her teacher forgot her here."

Her voice still sent shivers along his spine, even after more than a decade, and the sight of her had his palms itching. After all this time she'd filled her curves out even more, growing into the hourglass figure she had always tried to hide behind his oversized tee shirts. The long legs that she'd always sheathed in dark denim were bare now, tanned and smooth and showcased by a knee length navy blue dress. What hit him even harder was the silver infinity band she wore on her right ring finger, the same ring he gave to her when she was sixteen and they stood before the Justice of the Peace. When he received a discrete elbow to the ribs from his best friend, coworker and roommate Leslie Shay he blinked owlishly, noticing that the majority of the group was looking at him funny.

Realizing he was the only one who hadn't introduced himself he felt his face heat uncharacteristically. "Sorry about that, I'm Kelly Severide." Noticing her breathing hitch when he introduced himself, he was unsure of whether to feel proud, nervous or worried.

Her jaw clenching when the final member of Firehouse 51 introduced himself, Avalon barely suppressed the urge to curse up a storm. She had had a feeling that it was Kelly, but with eleven years filling the time since she had last seen him she had been unsure. Still tall and muscular he was now even more so, the navy blue shirt he wore straining against visible pectorals and abs. The same blue eyes that had captured her attention nearly fifteen years ago still shined with mischief, even if they were currently full of disbelief. The brief flash of a smile she had seen earlier had revealed the boyish smile that had managed to draw her in and get her to stay for nearly five years. This sudden turn of events would explain the nervous butterflies she had felt on the drive to the firehouse, and as she stood, eyes never leaving Kelly's she hardly noticed Emily's incessant babbling.

Clearing her throat she retracted her arm, letting it fall to her side as her fingers wiggled, unconsciously twisting her ring with her thumb, middle and pinky fingers. "Well anyways, Emily wanted to stop by and bring you guys something." She shuffled foot to foot in her three inch, red suede and cork platform heels. "Go ahead Em." Glancing down at her watch, she fought the urge to bounce heel to toe.

Dropping and then routing through the bag she had brought with her Emily cheered when she produced a big bag of tiny, manila change envelopes, each decorated with a name, and a large envelope addressed to the entire station. Handing the larger envelope to Chief Boden as he stepped up beside the group she beamed, passing out the little envelopes according to the name on them. Watching as each person opened theirs with raised eyebrows she tugged her backpack back on.

"I made them myself," she grinned, referring to the bracelets that most of the people before her now examined. "I used the same colors but different patterns for you all and secured them with an adjustable knot just in case the sizing is a little off."

Twisting her bracelet, a skinny fishtail pattern, between her fingers, Paramedic Gabriela Dawson smiled. "What do the colors represent?"

Emily pulled a little card out of her pocket, reading off of it. "The red is for prosperity and joy, fiery heat, life and vitality, survival, and energy. It also protects you from fears and increases your confidence to chase your dreams. The orange is a power and healing color. It stands for thoughtful control and vitality and endurance. Turquoise is for protection, health, confidence and strength. And the white is for the kindness you showed when I was left here," she explained, pausing once for breath.

Dawson and Shay both made an 'aw' sound but were reluctant to put theirs on.

"Hey Emily, is it alright if I go put mine in my locker? I don't want to get blood or anything on it while on a call," said Shay, fiddling with her chevron patterned one.

Emily shrugged in a 'do as you must' fashion. As the man introduced as Christopher Herrmann easily secured his around his wrist his face glowed with fatherly pride, proving that he had at least one child and was familiar with the simple gifts. Other men followed Herrmann's lead- some helping others secure their bracelets and all of them saying a quiet thank you. Kelly paused as he looked at his.

"Hey Em, how come mine has five colors instead of the four?" he asked, playing with the bracelet as it sat on his left wrist.

"Because when I was picking out the string I found one that matched your eyes," the eleven year old said softly, face darkening with a blush.

His face lighting up Kelly crouched down to her level. "Can I have a hug?" he asked cautiously.

Emily nodded and stepped into his open arms, wrapping her own around his neck and shrieking with laughter as he lifted her up and swung her in a circle once before setting her on her feet once more. Watching the two of them made Avalon's stomach clench with the thought of what could have been and she forced herself closer to him, placing a hand on Emily's back as she hugged him.

"We need to get going Em," Avalon said simply, trying her damnedest not to inhale the spicy, familiar scent of something purely Kelly Joseph Severide. She was twitchy and on edge, her fight or flight instincts pumping adrenaline through her system so fast that not even the idea of her mother triple berry chocolate cake could calm her down.

Emily squeezed her arms around Kelly's waist once more, waving to everyone as she checked her backpack and wrinkled her nose, turning to Avalon. "Ready," she stated.

Waving over her shoulder as she guided Emily towards her car Avalon didn't say a word, merely unlocking the maxima and getting behind the wheel, flicking the radio to the local country preset as she started it up. Ironically enough, Jake Owens' "The One That Got Away" was playing as she pulled away from the firehouse.

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A/N: So there's chapter two. Let me know what you guys think, and once again, have a happy and safe New Years Eve. -Alisabeth


	3. Photographs

A/N: So here is chapter three and the first one of the new year. Happy 2014 guys :) And on a side note, now that Holiday break is about over, updates may be about once or twice a week only now, depending on homework and such. -Alisabeth

Disclaimer: See the first two chapters.

* * *

Curled up on a corner of her parent's sofa post-brunch, Avalon sat in contemplative silence, a hand gently massaging her full belly as she ran her trip to the firehouse through her mind, analyzing everyone of her and Kelly's actions. Hating herself for how she froze upon seeing him she fought all the memories that were trying to break through the wall she had erected eleven years ago, the same ones that showed her at her happiest, her weakest, her saddest and the most in love she has ever been to date. They were from when she believed in true love and happily ever after, before she was cautious in giving away her heart and hesitant to trust anyone beyond immediate family. Feeling the beginnings of a stress headache pulling at her temples Avalon squinted against the lights of the living room, absently picking at a loose threat on the throw blanket she had tossed across her lap.

"Are you alright sweetie?" came her father's voice from where he sat kitty corner to the couch in his worn Lay-Z-boy, the same one that he used to sit in cleaning both his on and off duty guns whenever Kelly had come over to visit.

Twisting around and tucking her legs beneath her Ava rested her head on folded arms. "Yes daddy," she said softly, abandoning the heels she had been wearing for the greater part of the day.

William Carson snorted and turned to his daughter, a graying eyebrow raised in his tanned, weathered face. "Ava the last time you called me daddy was when you called to talk about Emily coming to live with you, and even then it was under great emotional stress. What's wrong?"

Chuckling weakly Avalon glanced at William from the corner of her eye, adjusting how her head lie so that she could look him straight in the eye. "I'm just thinking about some things, nothing to worry about." When he shot her a look that clearly said he didn't believe her she held up one hand. "Really."

Making a humming sound beneath his breath William let it go, reaching over to pat his wife, Andrea, on the hand as she sat on the arm of his chair. "Well just let me know if I need to break out the shotgun." Though his words were meant in jest, Avalon knew that he would likely pull the weapon if she ever brought Kelly back around without giving him an explanation.

Uttering a relatively sleepy sounding 'thank you' she continued to watch a rerun of **_M*A*S*H _**that her father had put on. Enjoying the banter between Hawk-eye and BJ, she turned to her mother on a commercial break.

"Hey mom, do you still have the box of photo albums I left here when I went to school?" Ava asked out of the blue, thinking of the big box of nearly a dozen albums.

Hardly glancing from the TV Andrea nodded. "It's just inside the entry to the attic if you would like to go get it," she explained, motioning absently to the stairs to the second story.

Moved by something unexplained, Ava stood and tread barefoot towards the stairs, moving a few feet past the landing before yanking the dangling chain to lower the collapsible attic entrance. Balancing carefully on the less than one hundred percent stable staircase she poked her head up, using her iPhone as a flash light. Never entering past her waist, she found the box she was looking for within arms reach of the entrance, its label pointing towards her as if it had known she would be coming back for it. Coughing through a cloud of dust she hefted it out, setting it on the rung above her as she retreated carefully, wishing she had thought to ask Jase to spot her. As her feet touched cool hardwood she muttered a small prayer beneath her breath, pausing briefly to put the drop down back. Carrying the box on her hip, she counted the stairs, one…two…three…all the way to the thirteenth and final one.

Automatically she was surrounded by Emily, Sarah and Taylor, all asking what was in the box with childish curiosity. Maneuvering around them she set the box on the center of the living room floor and sat cross legged beside it, routing through her purse for her pocket knife and deftly slicing through the clear packing tape that held it closed.

"Photo albums?" Emily questioned with a wrinkled nose as she reached in and extracted one of the bound books, running a finger over the embossed word on the cover- Memories. "Can I look through them?"

"Just be careful," Avalon warned as she thumbed through the remaining ones, handing a green one that had once been her 'portfolio' to Taylor and Sarah when they asked, including the same warning. Taking a familiar turquoise one for herself she didn't bother with the title but merely opened it in her lap, running her finger over the very first page.

It took no more than a moment for the girls to abandon their own scrapbooks and surround her on all sides, leaning close to look with her. While she had only purchased a high school year book in her senior year, she had used the turquoise scrapbook to document all the important moments from the first day of freshman year to the day she stepped across that stage to receive her diploma. On the very first page was a photo of her at just twelve years old, sitting on the front stairs of Patterson High School. The photo was taken on a Saturday when the school was closed, from a wide angle and encompassing both she and the entire front of the building, making her seem even smaller. In the photo beside it was Ava and Jase, still sitting on the front steps. Ian, their older brother, was fourteen years her senior and had already graduated college by the time she'd gotten to Patterson. Jase had been a more recent graduate and in town when she had started high school.

"How old were you in this one?" Emily asked, pointing to one on the next page of Ava and a petite brunette who was wearing a Patterson soccer jersey while Ava simply wore a pair of jeans and a plain tee shirt.

"I was twelve. That's Kate, she was my best friend in high school," Ava explained.

"Do you still talk to her?" Taylor whispered, staring at a photo of them at the school Halloween party from that year.

"Unfortunately Kate died a few months after graduation," Ava said sadly, swiping at a single tear.

That silenced the girls and Ava was able to flip through the rest of her freshman and most of her sophomore year without comment. Having just reached the last few months of her sophomore year she stopped flipping to stare at a picture of her and Kelly, their very first one, for a moment. Both of them were sitting at the dining room table in the house she had grown up in, caught mid-laugh as Kelly attempted to read from a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter." Her eyes shined and he was over dramatizing the tale of Pearl, book in one hand and a can of Coca cola in the other. To this day Avalon would claim that, in that moment, she had realized Kelly Severide was more than a mere football player; he was kind, funny and absolutely gorgeous, even at fifteen.

"And who is **_that_**?" Sarah giggled, sounding way older than eight years old as she emphasized her final word.

Trying to form an answer, Avalon was cut off as Jase settled beside her and peered at the image.

"That's her ex-boyfriend," he answered, scowling briefly, his expression enough to ward off any questions.

Sarah and Emily pouted while Taylor just bat her eyelashes, trying to get an answer without asking. Flipping through the pages, Kelly's image began to pop up more often as their relationship progressed. Pictures of them at homecoming and their junior prom, snapshots of him in his football uniform and her wearing his extra jersey on game day, a strip from a photo booth, and even a Polaroid of their silhouettes on the pier at the edge of his grandfathers property; more than two dozen photos of them filled the pages. On the very last page of the album was a series of six photos which had been carefully arranged between the words 'Graduation' and 'We Did It!' Kelly and Avalon were both shown receiving their diplomas and then standing together with them on the football field beneath a goal post. In another his head was ducked as he whispered in her ear, resulting in a look of absolute shock on her face. And in the final two it showed him down on one knee, holding a little black velvet box before showing a close up of a silver infinity ring, the very one Avalon now wore on her right hand rather than the ever significant left ring finger.


	4. I'll Carry You With Me

A/N: I would like to thank DracoMalfoysSweetGirl92 for all her help on this chapter, as well as everybody who has read and reviewed.

Disclaimer: See the first two chapters

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The sound of pots and pans banging together echoed throughout Fifty-One's break room as Candidate Mills moved about behind the island, water boiling on the stove behind him as the left over stew from the previous shift bubbled beside it. His fingers absently tapping out a beat on the scratched and scored tabled top, Kelly sat with his legs crossed with the left ankle over the right knee and his head tilt back in thought. Having worked methodically for the duration of the day, he had remained lost in his thoughts as he had checked the equipment on Squad, storing what was operating properly while temporarily replacing what wasn't. Ever since she had left Fifty-One that morning, Avalon had occupied his attention; her voice, her image, and her scent all working their way past his defenses. His shoulders tense, Kelly rolled his neck, huffing in frustration as he felt a dull ache beginning behind his eyes and spreading throughout his skull. A stress headache was just what he needed, as if he didn't have enough to deal with already.

Forcing himself to his feet he swallowed back a growl of frustration as most of the rooms eyes flicked in his direction. Reaching for the cupboard to the left of the sink he picked out the small first aid kit that had been stored there for the minor kitchen accidents that would happen before Mills had taken control of food preparation. Winning the battle against the child proof cap on the ibuprofen, he shook the recommended two into his palm rather than the four or five he used to down the previous year. As he leaned into the refrigerator and extracted a bottle of unopened water he paused, listening to the conversation between Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek and Peter Mills. Though there had originally been animosity between the two due to the fact that Mills had gotten more respect as a Candidate than Otis had, something had happened over the last year that had formed a sort of camaraderie between the two. Easily downing the pills, Kelly turned in their direction, jaw clenched when he figured out what they were saying, their voices low.

"Dude did you see those legs?" Mills muttered to Otis as he turned to stir the stew, tasting a dab before adding a dash more black pepper. "The last time I saw legs that nice was when my sister introduced me to her friend who was an ex-ballerina."

"And that rack? Fifty bucks says it was sculpted by the best of surgeons," Otis snickered, sipping on a likely stale mug of coffee.

Kelly couldn't take listening to them. "You know you two, women are not all about huge breasts and rockin' bodies," he snapped, drawing all eyes to him. "And I am sure Ms. Carson would put you out of commission if she heard you saying these things. Do you have no respect?"

Lieutenant Matthew Casey watched with an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed over his chest. He had wondered how Ava's presence would shake Kelly and after hours of waiting he was seeing a result. Matt had recognized the ex Mrs. Severide the moment she had walked into the station; hair that shade of red was an anomaly and the only time he had ever seen it was on her, and having remained quiet he had observed the interaction between the two curiously. To any outside person it would seem like an awkward encounter between two strangers, but to someone who had seen them together however briefly, it would seem like an ill thought out divorce where both parties were still to some degree in love with the other. Getting comfortable in his rolling chair, Matt watched to see where Kelly was taking his uncharacteristic rant as the other Lieutenant turned to the crowd.

"Who is on bathroom and puppy poop duty?" Kelly demanded. When Joe Cruz and Jeff Clarke raised their hands, a decidedly cruel smirk crossed Kelly's lips. "Good, well Mills and Otis will be switching duties with you." Giving a jaunty salute Kelly took his water and stalked towards the officer's barracks, leaving those in the break room shocked.

When Kelly was out of hearing range, Otis turned to Matt. "What the hell just happened?"

Matt snorted. "You two just walked into the lion's den, that's what you did. Now I would seriously suggest switching before you piss him off even more."

* * *

In the privacy of his little cubicle Kelly forced a sigh as he reclined in a straight backed wooden chair, hesitantly peering through the window beside the door before opening a drawer in his desk. Routing through extra pads of sticky notes, a bundle of pens and a few old books he had brought in to pass time, he pulled out a well worn copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter," the very book that had started it all. Turning to the very back of book he smiled wryly as he extracted what he was looking for; a lovingly worn photograph.

Because he and Ava had never had a 'real' wedding, the only traditional thing that they had were photographs taken by their friend Kate who was planning on getting a degree in photo journalism. Just about a thousand had been taken and painstakingly developed by hand in her dark room for absolutely no charge and each one were of professional quality. While Ava had concentrated on getting the photos scrap-booked and secured to the pages of an album he had snuck a single one away and it had remained with him through the good, the bad and the ugly; something he had kept from all the girls he had been with after her and from those who would question why they fell apart. Glancing down he ran a finger over the image that had been creased and faded by time.

Kate had taken it when they hadn't been paying attention, stealing a moment together before the chaos of their faux reception started. Avalon was still wearing the white strapless, tea length dress she had used as her 'wedding gown' and he was nearly blending into the shadows with his dark dress pants and navy button up, the sleeves cuffed below his elbows. Kelly's back had been pressed against a wall, his head bowed and his arm wrapped around the narrow was of Avalon as she looked up at him from beneath her lashes. Somehow her elegantly done bun had come loose, dark auburn straining against elastics and pins to create a more relaxed up-do, one of her hands flat against his chest while the other fingered the collar of his shirt. It was still easy to remember that it was in that moment that it had hit him, that he realized he had married who was seemingly the love of his life.

Avalon and Kelly had been young and foolhardy when they married, with a crumbling plan of action as she took up a job in a book store while he worked at his uncle's auto garage and took classes at the Fire Academy. Their relationship had consisted of outstanding sex, short yet deep conversations and an underlying resentment that had manifested the day Avalon had found out that not only was their best friend dead, but that Kelly had been the one to help paramedics extract Kate's dead body from her crushed Toyota using the Jaws of Life. Two months later she had filed for divorce, accepted a reinstated scholarship from UMass Dartmouth and told him that she was leaving.

Swallowing thickly, Kelly set the photo back into the novel and tucked it back into its drawer, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to force his mind away from anything to do with that day and the repercussions. And as the dispatch system went off, he was more thankful than ever to have a call to distract him from thoughts of his ex-wife.


	5. Break Down

A/N: Before this chapter starts I would like to dedicate this story to anyone who has read and reviewed any of my stories, even if it were just a smiley face or a 'cant wait.' Your feedback means so much to me! This chapter is a little bit of a look into the character of Avalon and I confess that the character of Emily is based on a very spunky eleven year old that I know. Have a nice weekend everybody!- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I still don't own the characters or rights of/to Chicago Fire, nor do I own any of the songs in this chapter. I do however own the Carson's, Emily and Ava.

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Tossing and turning amongst summer linens and a stubborn puppy, Avalon pushed herself up onto her elbows with a groan, grunting as she maneuvered into a sitting position with her legs drawn to her chest. The numbers on her alarm clock glowed in the dark, the display reading 1:02 a.m as if to taunt her. Her face felt gritty, her eyes dry; both were the result of having cried herself to sleep for only the third time in eleven years; the first had been the night that she had walked out on Kelly and contacted the lawyer, the second was the night she had taken Emily in and began planning for the funeral of Kayla and Thomas Bryant. The third time was tonight, after seeing Kelly for the first time in over a decade. Watching as the clock ticked to 1:03 she huffed, swinging her legs over the edge of her mattress knowing that the probability of her falling back to sleep were slim to none.

Fighting a shiver as bare feet touched down upon cold hardwood Avalon yawned, reaching for the faux silk short robe that she had tossed over the back of her desk chair. Shrugging it on over the boy short panties and the oversized tee shirt she was wearing she began making her way towards the kitchen, hesitating beside her desk and picking up the two albums that rested on its corner. Ignoring the little voice in the back of her mind telling her to bury them in the back of her closet Avalon placed the albums on the end table in the living room and flicked the iHome in the corner on quietly, knowing that Emily could sleep through even the loudest of thunder storms. Catching the final few bars of Cassadee Pope's "Wasting All These Tears," she listened to the introduction of Billy Lord's "Written in the Stars," marveling once again at how relatable his lyrics were as she plopped onto the teal blue couch that she had brought with her from her apartment in Boston. Tugging the fleece throw patterned with neon rainbow zebra stripes from the back of the couch she draped it over her lap, pulling the albums to her and pulling the chain from the lamp beside them. Fingering the one embossed with the words 'Once Upon a Time Starts Now' she flipped it to the first page and sorrowfully admired the photo of her and Kelly before the Justice of The Peace, a copy of their marriage certificate pasted to the page.

It was unclear to her as to why she was torturing herself with the albums and the memories, even as she skimmed the pages and thought back to when ever single photo was taken. Not only was the idea of her and Kelly's relationship acting as a pressure within her, taking the form of tears and building behind her eyes and in her throat, but it was also the concept of their good friend Kate who had taken the photos. Remembering how Kate had been so influential in getting Kelly and Ava together made it even more difficult to suppress the tears. One or two dripped out first, opening the flood gates for full on, heart wrenching, full bodied sobs. Canine whimpers came from Castiel as he came trotting out but she merely nudged him away, trying to avoid the likeliness of getting tears on the albums.

Nails clicked on the hardwood but Ava just buried her face into her blanket covered thighs and continued to sob, entirely missing the sound of little feet bounding across the apartment and the sound of Emily asking what was wrong. Petite arms wound around Ava from the side as all eighty pounds of Emily wiggled onto her lap, the albums moved back to the end table. Emily rocked too and fro, remembering how Ava had done it the night they had found out of her parent's death, after leaving the hospital. The roles were reversed in the current moment but the comfort offered was still the same.

Her own eyes watering Emily wondered why one of the strongest women she knew was sobbing so hard, when the only time she had ever cried was at the double funeral. Should she call someone? Should she stay quiet? Or should she try to wheedle the answer out of her aunt? Twenty minutes flew past and as Emily's eyes began to feel weighted she let out a breath when she realized that there was no school the next day, that it was still the weekend. As Ava's sobs began to lessen and Emily recognized the song on the iHome as Phil Collin's "You'll Be in My Heart," she began to sing along softly until Ava quieted completely, her shoulders shuddering as she tried to regain her breath.

Blinking in a way reminiscent of an owl Ava glanced up through lashes moist with her tears, her nose red and runny. Scrambling for the box of Kleenex on the counter and returning, Emily sat with legs criss crossed beneath her, holding the tissues as an offering. Blowing her nose as with a rather unlady like bellow, Ava sniffled and placed the used tissues in the couch side mini-trash can. Opening her arms and inhaling the scent of Emily's shampoo as she settled against her, Ava swallowed thickly and rest her forehead against her niece's temple.

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" she asked sounding both mentally and physically drained.

Emily shrugged innocently. "Castiel woke me up when you started crying. What's wrong Auntie? Why were you crying?"

Ava exhaled sharply in what could be compared to a harsh, single note chuckle. "Nothing is wrong sweetheart; I was just having an off moment."

Emily scoffed and glared, dark blue eyes narrow. "You don't have moments, you fix them. Aunt Ava, you don't cry for shits and giggles."

"Have you been hanging around Uncle Jase?" Ava questioned, trying to divert the current train of discussion.

"That is not the point," Emily said with a furrow forming between her brows. "The last time you cried was when mom and dad died," she paused as her jaw clenched and her eyes began to water. "And that was after the funeral and after you had thought I was asleep. You don't cry Aunt Ava; you're one of the strongest people I know. It's like…like you're a cross between Wolverine and Rogue, with the brain of Professor X and the heart of a lion, and….and the strength of Superman!" Breaking out the character references was what she did best.

Ava swiped at another tear. "The problem with all the people you just named sweetheart, is that they all have their weaknesses; Jean Grey, her inability to have physical contact, his great power, Kryptonite." She pursed her lips. "I'm okay; I just came into contact with my own type of kryptonite."

Zeroing in on the albums and darting a hand out for them before Ava could stop them Emily pulled the wedding one into her lap, opening it to a random page. "Is this what made you cry?" she asked.

"Leave it be Emily," Ava whispered, head tilt back.

Squinting at the page in the dim light Emily could make out a younger version of her aunt and who looked like… lieutenant Severide? "Is that the lieutenant?" there was no way to hide the surprise in her voice.

Reading the title on the album it all clicked into place. "Is he the prince from the story you used to tell me? And that girl, Kate, was the fairy godmother?"

Ava cursed herself for telling the story of her teenage years as a rehash of the Disney classics. Sighing reluctantly she nodded. "Yes."

All Emily could say was a simple "Oh." Thumbing through the album she leaned against her aunt. "I'm sorry."

Cocking an eyebrow Ava peered at Emily. "Why are you sorry?

"For pushing. You told me you were okay and I pushed." Grunting in surprise as the arms around her tightened, Emily relaxed when Ava brushed strands of dark hair out of her face.

"Well thank you for pushing, I should know better than to keep things bottled up."

"Does that mean you will tell me about Lieutenant Severide and Ms. Kate and why you aren't with him anymore?"

Noting that the clock on the DVD player read two-twenty Avalon shook her head. "Not tonight Emily. Maybe tomorrow."

"Pinky promise?" Emily inquired as she shuffled to her feet, closing the albums and refolding the blanket.

"Pinky promise."

Half way back to her room Emily paused. "Hey auntie, did you know that the pinky promise is believed to have started with the Japanese mafia, indicating that the pinky or part of a finger would be cut off if you broke a promise and displeased the boss?" Seeing the look on her aunt's face Emily shrugged. "I saw it on Hawaii Five-O and looked it up."

Shaking her head Avalon followed Emily into her room, patting their puppy on the head as her niece climbed into the full sized bed. "Well that's informative. Sweet dreams sweetheart," she chuckled as she tucked Emily in beneath a polka dotted comforter. Dropping a kiss on her niece's forehead Ava retreated back to her own room, making a note to pick up the albums in the morning.

As she climbed back beneath her sheets, thoughts of Kate and Kelly temporarily pushed from her mind, Avalon chuckled. "I really shouldn't be letting her watch Hawaii Five-O." Shrugging to herself, Avalon fell into a relatively restful night of dreams filled with the image of Alex O'Loughlin moving about in full combat gear.

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A/N: Ava may seem a little bit all over the place this chapter, but hopefully it makes some sense and will make even more sense in coming chapters. Music wise all the songs mentioned are, in my opinion, very well written but lately I have fallen in love with the relatively unknown artist Billy Lord. He is an independent artist who rides cross country on an old Harley to perform and if anyone is interested in looking him up or listening to his music you can find it on his website www. billylordmusic. com (just remove the spaces). If you just want to check out his music his has both a Soundcloud and a Youtube page.

Thanks for reading!- Alisabeth


	6. Just Walk Away

A/N: This chapter was a difficult one to write so I apologize in advanced. If anyone needs anything cleared up please PM me or let me know via review- Alisabeth

Disclaimer- I don't own anything accept the original characters

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Standing at the counter flipping pancakes under the watchful eye of one Miss Emily Bryant, Avalon knew that there was going to be no way for her to escape the explanation of her relationship with Kelly Severide. With the table already set for breakfast and her iHome playing one of Maroon 5's older songs, Avalon sighed, her shoulders burning as if she could physically feel Emily's stare. Biting her tongue as the side of her pinky brushed the heated pan she clenched her jaw, taking the act as an omen that the day was only going to continue to spiral south. Embracing the pain of it as she slid the final flapjack onto a brightly colored ceramic plate she handed it to her niece, running her hand beneath the cool tap and patting it dry. Trying to prolong the silence for as long as she can she turned to make herself another cup of coffee, her Keurig hissing as it spit the brew into a Disney themed mug with the lyrics of 'Colors of the Wind' on it. Taking her time to fix it to her liking, she fought a smile at Emily's protest and how she called for Avalon to 'hurry up.'

Her mug in hand Avalon shuffled over to the small, wooden table that she had gotten from Emily's parent's home. Between them and her old apartment their new Chicago residence was eclectically decorated but fit both personalities perfectly. Taking her seat she allowed herself to take her time selecting the most perfect pancakes and neatly buttering them before cutting them into perfect little triangles. Carefully choosing the crispiest of bacon strips Avalon jumped when Emily growled in frustration.

"Aunt Avalon!" she exclaimed, her brows furrowed and her face pinched, a dribble of maple syrup decorating her lower lip. "Stop procrastinating."

Chewing her first bite carefully Avalon smirked. "I'm not procrastinating, I'm eating my breakfast before it gets cold; there's a difference."

"You can eat and talk at the same time, I've seen you do it," Emily bartered, intent on getting more information.

Rolling her grey eyes Avalon rinsed her last bite down with a bit of coffee. "Alright Ms. Stubborn, what do you want to know?"

Her fork paused halfway to her mouth Emily gave Avalon a droll look. "How about hmm….everything! Start with how you met," she demanded, shoving the bite into her mouth.

Chewing the idea over Avalon nodded. "Okay so…we met towards the end of our sophomore year in high school, March if I remember correctly. I was fourteen, he was sixteen and our English teacher had assigned us as partners for an analysis and interpretation project for Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Scarlet Letter.' I didn't know anything about him other than his name and that he played for the football team so I was rather reluctant to work with him. I kept trying to get out of working with him but Mrs. Chesterfield was adamant." As she spoke her words took on a wistful tone, her eyes glazing slightly as she paused for a bite and a breath, occasionally a sip as well.

"The day I found out we would be partners I did everything I could think of to avoid him and I had the idea of doing the project by myself until he cornered me after lunch and told me that he needed the grade. I can still remember his exact words; 'I know you're the smartest kid in class and that you probably think I'm the stereotypical jock but I'm not. I need this grade and I specifically requested to work with you. If I promise to do my fair share and really put in the effort will you work with me?' he was practically begging. I told him to let me think on it and then I went and ended up ranting to Katie who in turn laughed in my face, asking me why it was taking me so long to decide. Her rationale was that he needed my help, he was cute and that I had nothing better to do. I accepted the partnership later that day." She hesitated to go on. "I seriously thought he would bail when I set the time and date to work on the project but he really surprised me; he beat me to the library and had already gathered all the materials we would need. We spent two weeks working on the project in and outside of school and each time he showed up, Kelly seemed to find a way to surprise me; he would read up on characters in his free time, he would have these surprisingly scholarly analysis's and he was in no way a dumb jock. I remember Kate teasing me that it was like he went from being a frog to my prince."

It took a moment for Avalon to clear her throat and continue. In that moment there was something in her eyes that Emily had never seen before, something completely unidentifiable.

"Kelly asked me out for the first time in May and we kind of just flourished from there. We used to go out whenever we didn't have any big assignments and in the summer when we weren't working. The dates weren't anything extravagant; sometimes they were going to the movies or just to a small dinner, taking walks through the park or when he was back in training for the next season I would join him on his work outs. When school started back up we were still together, just not as often and it was incredibly weird to go from being absolutely invisible to the student body to known because you were dating the star quarterback."

Taking the drawn out pause as a chance to ask a question, Emily set down her fork. "When did you know that you were in love?"

"He said I love you first, but I knew I loved Kelly after a year of dating. To this day I still can't figure out when it truly hit me but I remember just saying it in the middle of one of our dates about two days after he said it to me. We dated for a total of about two and a half years without anything super exciting happening; we went to our senior prom only, both homecomings, and all his football games-that was about it. On the day of graduation, after we had both crossed the stage and received our diplomas, Kelly had pulled me aside and proposed, completely out of the blue."

Emily's face lit up, despite the relative simplicity of the tale, and she bounced. "What was it like? What was your ring like?"

"He just said that the last two years had been his best and made him a better person because of me and that he couldn't imagine not being together for the rest of our lives. The ring you ask was perfect. It wasn't elegant or flashy, it was just this." Twisting the silver infinity ring from her right hand, she showed it to her niece who merely cocked an eyebrow, causing Avalon to laugh. "We were high school students with little money of our own; besides, I wouldn't have wanted anything else. I accepted his proposal and the entire time, Katie was taking pictures like her life depended on it. She was the one we asked to take photos when we went the very next day to the court house to get married."

"So Kate took all the pictures in the albums?" Emily asked softly.

Nodding Avalon took the final bite of her breakfast and continued her story. "Every single one; she was going to college in the fall to be a photo journalist. She photographed the ceremony and the reception without payment, only asking that she be allowed to keep the negatives and copies of the pictures for her portfolio. The reception was held at my parent's house; just some finger food and a store bought cake- nothing special, but we didn't need anything special so it was okay." Knowing that her niece would ask about the honeymoon she went there next. "Kelly's grandfather, Ian, lent us his cabin upstate for a week for our honeymoon. You would have liked him; he was always smiling and telling stories and always seemed to have some sort of candy in his pockets. After that week, we came home and began searching for a small apartment for us.

When we did find the apartment it was the beginning of fall and Kelly was going to the Fire Academy and I had deferred all the scholarships I had been offered by various schools, figuring that I would take a year to be a wife. I mean, I was only seventeen, I had time. So while Kelly worked part time in an auto garage and attended the Academy, I worked full time at a book store down the street from our apartment. A year passed and the schools started to call about my scholarships, telling me I needed to make a decision or they were going to be offered to someone else. I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to do and every time I had approached Kelly about me going back to school he was either too busy to talk or too tired to listen.

I was getting frustrated, my parents were getting worried and Kate was confused on how Kelly and I went from being perfect to being a virtual nightmare. And I think she blamed herself to a degree for letting it get so out of hand. Kate was like that; kind, beautiful both inside and out, and she would mother hen. She always put others before herself. Two months before my eighteenth birthday I got a call from Katie's parents saying that there had been an accident. She had swerved to miss a child that had run into the road and had ended up flipping her car, dying on impact. I went to call Kelly and he already knew. He was the one to pull her from the car and couldn't even call me himself to tell me that our best friend was dead!"

Tears were streaming down Avalon's face and Emily began to panic. "I don't want to know any more," Emily insisted, her words falling on deaf ears.

But Avalon kept going, swiping at tears.

"Kelly said he hadn't been able to figure out how to tell me, that he was still in the process of figuring it out. The day Katie's funeral happened he wasn't there because he was on shift. Our best friend's funeral! That seemed to be the downfall for us and I couldn't take it anymore. I stayed with my parents for a few days after a particularly harsh argument and I ran. I just…I just ran away. I went to the apartment when he was at school, left enough cash for rent and packed up my stuff."

Picking at her cuticles Avalon stood with a shake of her head, gathering the dirty dishes and scraping them off into the garbage, unable to communicate the millions of thoughts running through her head. Placing the dishes in the sink she plugged the drain and ran the hot water, adding some dish soap and watching it bubble. Submersing her hands and reaching for the sponge she shook her head.

"I just ran away."

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A/N: Sorry? Let me know what you guys think.


	7. History Repeats Itself

A/N: So this is by far the longest chapter I have ever written, let me know what you think :)

Disclaimer: All I own is Katie, Avalon and Emily

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Firehouse Fifty-One was near silent with an hour left- sixty minutes, 3600 seconds- in a twenty four hour shift. Overnight bags were being repacked, bunks made up for the next shift and Paramedics Dawson and Shay were already in the process of making a fresh batch of coffee, looking forward to putting their civilian clothes back on. Members of Squad, Truck and Engine were gathered around the break room, half heartedly listening to the morning news report as Chris Herrmann called out the scores of local games from the Sports Section of the Sunday morning paper. Nobody wanted to say the 'q' word, but as the minutes ticked by they were relaxing more and more, looking forward to having the next twenty four hours off. The clock struck five past seven and as some began a mental count down the overhead dispatch alarm went off, causing the majority to curse.

"Squad Three, Truck Eighty-One, Ambulance Sixty-One to a single vehicle accident on Danvers and Remington. Squad Three, Truck Eighty-One, Ambulance Sixty-One."

A unanimous groan went up as everyone scrambled into their turnouts and into their appropriate vehicles, sirens wailing and lights flashing as Ambulance, Squad and Truck pulled out of the apparatus bay and towards the accident. As cityscape passed on both sides Lieutenant Kelly Severide watched it fly as the Squad truck roared through the streets, a sense of foreboding churning his stomach and the single piece of toast that he had eaten before the call. Something wasn't right and the closer they got to the corner of Danvers and Remington the worse the sense became.

When Capp screeched to a halt and parked, Severide jumping out, he immediately understood the sense of foreboding, memories meshing with the present sight before him. The acid of his stomach tried to fight its way up his esophagus, and it took nearly all his strength to push it back down. Assessing the situation as he moved closer, Kelly noticed Matt Casey step up beside him, the blonde's blue eyes sweeping the scene.

"Are you okay to deal with this?" Matt asked in a hushed tone, already planning ahead as he saw the silver Toyota rock on its roof, the near entirety of the vehicle concaved, its passengers side mere inches from taking out a fire hydrant.

"So far so good," Kelly responded, withholding the words 'I Think.' Barking a few orders he accepted the Jaws of Life from Clarke, moving in closer.

Crouching a little to peer inside and to estimate how close the victim was to the door and how they were trapped he felt his blood freeze in his veins. Brunette hair was matted to a heart shaped face by blood, the red substance shining in the morning light. Dawson was in the backseat, carefully putting a C-collar on and trying to get answers from the victim. When she asked what the victim's name was Kelly thought he was going to faint when the brunette hoarsely whispered 'Katie.' Was this some sick nightmare? Jaw clenched and his protective goggles on, he made sure that Dawson was covering Katie as he started the Jaws of Life, working it through the metal with Clarke backing him up.

Meticulously cutting through the vehicle and helping Dawson and Shay to get Katie onto a backboard and then a stretcher, Kelly couldn't help but draw comparisons to the day over a decade ago. Same type of vehicle, same flip rotation and point of impact, same part of town, and the victims were near identical. Listening to Dawson bark orders as she pushed the stretcher to the awaiting ambulance Kelly felt absolutely useless and like he had failed once more. After storing Squad's gear and getting back into the cab, Kelly noticed absently that it was eight a.m on the dot as they cleared the scene

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He's fully changed and waiting in the break room for Shay to finish changing when he sees Dawson and unconsciously calls out to her, asking for a status update on Katie. The Latina's eyes darken, her lips turn down at the corner and she gently shakes her head, looping the strap of her duffle over her shoulder. She couldn't say it but when he asks Shay as they get into his car, he gets the full story. Katie had flat lined three times on the way to the hospital and Dawson had successfully brought her back, but when she flat lined as they wheeled her into the ER of Lakeshore Memorial Hospital there was no bringing her back, time of death listed as seven passed eight in the morning. The ride to their apartment was missing its usual mindless chatter; his blue eyes glossed over in thought and focused on the road. Shay was worried but when she asked if he was okay all he did was nod.

Kelly even skipped their post shift breakfast in favor of disappearing into his room, the door closed and what sounded like uttered apologies and quiet sobs slipping out from beneath the door. Shay was oddly scared for Kelly, standing outside his door with her cell phone in one hand and the other clapped over her mouth as tears built in her eyes. She hardly ever cried but when she did it always involved Kelly in one way or another. Her thumb darting around the touch screen of her iPhone she fired off a text to the one person she figured could help her best friend where she couldn't.

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Matt Casey drove through downtown Chicago towards his most recent job site, his cell phone balanced on his left knee as the sound of a dial tone echoed through his Bluetooth. His fingers crossed as he held the steering wheel, he hoped that the number he had gotten from Connie was the right one- that it really did belong to Avalon. Chewing on his lower lip as he made a right hand turn, he cheered softly when a relatively familiar female voice answered.

"Avalon? It's Matt Casey," he said, flinching when he came up with the possibility of her not remembering him. "From Firehouse Fifty-One?"

There was hesitation on the other end of the line. "I know who you are. What do you want Matt?"

The words are out of his mouth before he had time to process them, let alone decide not to use them. "Kelly needs you." And when he realizes that he had let them slip he tries his best to clear it up, faintly recognizing the tinny sound of him being on speakerphone himself. "There was an accident today and I think you are the only person that will be able to get through to him."

Avalon snorted. "Then send him to a therapist." She whispered something to someone who he couldn't identify.

"It was identical to Katie's accident." It was a low blow to be that blunt, and her sharp inhalation made him wince. "Same vehicle, same area, same situation. Avalon, the driver was an eighteen year old brunette named Katie."

"I don't need to know this," Avalon protested. "We haven't been together in eleven years; whatever Kelly is up to isn't any of my business." In the background on her end there was an excited squeal and some sort of chatter.

Matt scoffed. "Katie was a friend to both of you and when you left you missed seeing Kelly fall into a downward spiral; all he did was eat, sleep and work. No girls for nearly four years, he stopped drinking and he started running just to escape. It worked for awhile and then last year Andy died right in front of us and Kelly still blames himself. You remember Andy, right? With the wife and two little boys?"

"I remember," Avalon snapped, her mind conjuring the image of a tall, gangly brunette who constantly cracked jokes throughout the Fire Academy's graduation reception. "Again, what does this have to do with me?"

"I need you to try to get through to him. His roommate called me in a tizzy saying that he went directly to his room and when she went to check on him she could hear him crying an apologizing to thin air. He needs you Avalon, even if you just call to tell him there was nothing he could have done."

"Do you know why I left Matt?" she hissed, not giving him a chance to respond. "I left because he never told me that he was the first responder to Katie's accident. If that's the case, why should I give him a chance to talk about this Katie?"

"Because the Avalon I remember wasn't such a bitch." It was out in the air before he could take it back and Matt swore to himself, yet he was on a role. "You used to care about him, like he was the only person in your little universe and I understand being heartbroken and betrayed, hell, my ex fiancée left because she didn't want kids after stringing me along for years, but don't let that stop you from being a decent human being."

"A decent human being?" On the other end, Avalon clenched her jaw. "You're treading on thin ice, Matthew."

"Then I'll get off the pond. Look Avalon, I may be asking a lot of you and you may not be ready to confront your issues, but think about it. I'll text you his number and address and you can do what you wish with it."

Before she could protest Matt had hung up, shooting her the text message full of Kelly's contact information.

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Avalon stared at her phone as if it had offended her, not the man who had been on the other end of the line. Emily was sitting on the counter, measuring out balls of homemade oatmeal raisin cookie dough and placing them on a baking sheet as the oven preheated, her little ears listening intently to every word Matthew Casey had spewed. Making faces to the cookie dough Emily watched as Avalon set her phone aside, ignoring its chime to indicate an incoming text.

"Are you done with the dough?" Avalon asked, completely ignoring the whole discussion, taking the baking sheet when Emily nodded, sticking it into the oven and setting the timer. Leaning against the counter top for a moment she began to clean, viciously scrubbing black linoleum and stainless steel.

"So are you going?" Emily said out of the blue, peering into the oven and watching the dough harden and rise. "To Kelly's, I mean."

"No."

"Oh." Emily picked at the hem of her tee shirt. "Can I go back to looking at the albums?"

"If your hands are clean; I'll be over in a second."

Scampering towards the teal blue couch Emily dove for 'her' cushion, pulling the albums she had been looking at earlier back to her lap. Waiting for her aunt to join her she grinned impishly behind a curtain of black hair, carefully selecting the page where she wanted to start. Marking it with her finger she got comfortable as Avalon eased down beside her.

"This is where we left off," Emily said innocently, pointing to a page covered in pictures of Kelly, Katie and Avalon, all of them wearing a costume in each. Chattering randomly and throwing questions left and right she carefully dipped her hand into the pocket on her aunts hooded sweatshirt, drawing her iPhone out with deft fingers, Avalon none the wiser. Huh, perhaps years of watching Leverage did come in handy. Continuing to chatter she unlocked her aunt's phone and opened the message from Lieutenant Casey, selecting the number in the text message and calling it, letting it ring a few times before hanging up. Putting the phone back into her aunt's pocket she yanked her hand back when it began to ring and Avalon reached for it.

"Hello?" she answered. "How did you get this number?...I did not," Avalon protested. Avalon turned and glared at Emily. "Oh really, well I think I need to have a discussion with the little minx who stole my phone and called you." She listened for a moment. "Dammit Kelly I didn't call you!" Kelly must have asked a question. "Matt gave it to me. He conned my number from Connie, called me and said he would appreciate it if I spoke to you…yeah, well he's convinced that he can easily guilt me into calling you."

Avalon's eyes widened and she pulled her phone away from her ear to stare at it, easily getting to her feet and locking herself in her room. With the door shut behind her she pinched the bridge of her nose.

* * *

It was a bit disconcerting to receive a phone call from your ex-husband where one moment he's ranting about how you had called him (when you hadn't) and asking where you had gotten his number, and then the next he's apologizing, sounding choked up and half way to hung over. With long fingers pinching the bridge of her nose Avalon drops like a dead weight onto her bed, phone to her ear as she listened to Kelly.

"I froze Av, I took one look at the scene and all of a sudden it was like I was back there with our Katie, stumbling towards the wreck and continually calling for her to look at me even after the EMT had told me she was DOA. Matt had to make me conscious of the fact that I wasn't there and I thought I could handle it, and I was handling it right up until Dawson said that her name was Katie. It was like looking at her twin!" The voice that had always sounded like Kelly gargled daily with whiskey and gravel now sounded just downright hoarse, like someone getting over a nasty bout of laryngitis.

Unsure of what to think or say, Avalon made a noncommittal 'hmm' and let her ex continue, wondering why she was wasting her time.

"When the ambulance left she was still alive; Dawson said that she flat lined three times en route and for a final time in the lobby to the ER; they couldn't bring her back. Thinking about it now all I see is our Katie and my sister and…"

Avalon cut him off unintentionally. "You have a sister? Since when?"

"Since Benny couldn't keep it in his pants; her name's Katie and she's twelve years younger than me. Half sister…."

Nose wrinkled at the thought of her ex father in law, Avalon shuddered. The guy had always been a little bit weird. When Kelly went without saying anything for an extended period of time Avalon worried slightly. "Are you still there?"

He hiccupped. "Yup."

"You aren't drinking are you?"

"Surprisingly no, but my roommate is going to kill me; I just finished all three of her pints of Ben and Jerry's."

Avalon snorted a chuckle. "You always did have a sweet tooth." Her eyes scrunched shut and she cursed at herself. "I didn't mean…"

"S'okay."

Avalon pulled a pillow towards her, hugging it to her chest. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you."

"Gee thanks," Kelly retorted. "That's okay, I don't know why I'm still on the phone with you…it's just, I think it's because you knew me when I knew Katie and Shay has no clue about it or what I was like back then."

"Shay?"

"From Fifty-One; she's my roommate."

Letting out a little 'oh' Avalon actually smacked herself on the forehead without meaning to and let out a little 'ow.' The sound of the timer going off gave her the perfect escape. "Well, I need to go."

Kelly actually sounded disappointed. "Oh…hey Ava? Can I see you again?"

Leaving her room and holding the phone to her ear using her shoulder, she reached for two pot holders and pulled out the cookies, responding as she set them atop the stove and turned the oven off. "I'm not sure. I'm not in the place to have a relationship right now; I've got Emily to worry about and besides, I'm not too sure you and I would be a good idea. We tried that once, remember?"

"I also remember that for a while we were perfect for one another."

Pushing the cookies out of Castiel's reach, Avalon rolled her shoulders. "Perfect is overrated."

"Yeah well…"Kelly broke off with a chuckle and she could imagine him shaking his head. "Alright, thanks Ava."

Hanging up and tucking her phone back into her pocket Avalon stood staring at the three dozen cookies she had baked, in the process of mentally divvying them up when Emily sauntered in, grinning like the cat that got the cream.

"Was that Lieutenant Severide?" Emily giggled, darting out of the kitchen in laughter as Avalon playfully threw a dish rag at her.

Picking out her to-go tins, Avalon cocked her head, an idea she would probably regret coming to mind.

* * *

Leslie Shay was confused, blonde brows furrowed as she stepped into the apartment she shared with her best friend, a container under her arm and a note in hand. Calling out with the assumption that her roommate was still barricaded in his room, she flinched and let out a shriek as his head popped up over the back of the couch, bleary eyed as if he had just woken up which would explain how he hadn't known about the box on their stoop.

"Hey Kel, there's a package for you," Shay said, passing it over the back of the couch with the note that she had already skimmed.

Enjoying the look of confusion he wore, she curled up in their shared recliner to watch him open the box. The plain brown cardboard box bearing his name was slit with Kelly's pocket knife, revealing an aluminum platter with an attached plastic lid, much like one would find at a takeout restaurant. Stacked inside was what looked to be a dozen oatmeal raisin cookies along with another note. Reading it to himself, Kelly smiled before reading it allowed.

Severide-

Oatmeal raisin in case you still had a sweet tooth. Thank Casey for sending me your address (without me asking!). PS: This isn't me giving in, in Matt's words I'm just being a decent human being.- A

Popping the tin and taking a cookie, Kelly was completely oblivious to Shay asking who 'A' was and where her ice cream had disappeared to.


	8. Normal is a Relative Term

A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the wait. This is a bit of a filler chapter, but hopefully I will have a full lengthed one in by midweek when I have the day off. Enjoy the rest of your weekend- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: all I own is Ava, Emily, Maggie and the Carson's.

* * *

The fingers of a cool wind swept through Chicago and along the spine of Avalon Carson, slipping beneath the collar of her navy pea coat as the breeze lifted long, loose tendrils of dark hair. The echo of her high heels changed in pitch, going from concrete to tiled floors as she slipped inside the Chicago Cultural History Museum, softly greeting the young woman at the admissions office as she headed in the direction of the 'Employee's Only' section of the museum. Swiping her key card and going directly to the break area to refill her travel mug she nodded in acknowledgment of her early bird co-workers, juggling her belongings briefly as she unlocked her office. Her ear buds in and her head bobbing along to Parmalee's 'Carolina,' she went directly to her computer, setting her mug down on its coaster as she turned the desktop on, watching it for a moment before turning to her little closet to store her purse and jacket, securing it with her set of keys. Logging into the system and then into her work email she skims through a mass email about a meeting that afternoon, pausing her music and tucking away her headphones.

Opening one about the upcoming Colonial America exhibit she chuckled to herself at its footnote and glanced up when there was a knock on her door jamb. Noticing her friend Lena standing in the threshold and holding a to-go bag from the nearby bakery Avalon grinned, waving her in.

"Morning Lena," Avalon greeted, crossing her legs and taking a few napkins out of her right hand drawer as Lena sat and opened the bag, the scent of breakfast sandwiches wafting across the desk. For the past month and a half this had become their tradition; sharing breakfast sandwiches and gossip before work completely began every Monday. Accepting the sausage and egg biscuit that was proffered Avalon near moaned a "thank you" as she took her first bite.

Magdalena Constantino grinned back, straight white teeth contrasting brilliantly against her dark, Mediterranean complexion as she got comfortable in the guest's chair, carefully adjusting her black pencil skirt and sheer, red blouse. "No problems," she said, her voice colored with a lovely, lilting accent. "So how was your weekend after we talked on Friday?"

Thoroughly chewing the bite she had taken as she thought how to answer that question, Avalon swallowed thickly and took a sip of her coffee. "It was good; Em and I watched some movies Friday night, Saturday we stopped by the firehouse to say thank you to the ones who found her before we left for brunch, I ran into my ex-husband and then yesterday we baked a bunch of cookies- I have some in my lunch box if you would like one." Figuring it would be best to slip it in and hope that Lena wouldn't notice Avalon went about taking another bite of her sandwich, savoring the taste of it.

Magdalena's dark eyes widened, full lips forming a perfect 'o.' "Okay, run that by me again; did you say _'ex husband_? When were you ever married?" Avalon had never seen the curator of Mediterranean history and culture look so baffled.

"I was sixteen, he was eighteen, it lasted two years," Avalon summarized, thinking it would be enough.

Magdalena huffed, clearly wanting more of the story. "And where did you see him?"

"At the firehouse." Noticing the casual smirk and the calculated way Lena was looking at her Avalon shook her head. "Uh-uh, Lena, choose your next words wisely."

Pouting playfully, Lena flipped a wing of dark brunette hair out of her face, leaning forward enough where she had her elbows on the desk, her sandwich half gone and sitting beside her. "Was he hot when you married him? How 'bout now?"

"Very and even hotter, now can we talk about something else?" Avalon threw a withering glance at her now empty, grease soaked napkin, reaching for the pump bottle of hand sanitizer she kept near her pencil cup. Rubbing the alcohol based gel into her palms she leaned back in her rolling chair. "What do you have planned for the Mediterranean room's next exhibit?"

"Talking shop will not distract me this time but I swear I hear Jesse coming and I do believe I have a display designer to seduce." The smirk Lena wore was pure evil.

"Aren't there rules about shitting where you eat and about office romances?" Avalon asked with a quirked brow.

"Who says anything about romance?" she paused. "Don't think this conversation is over." Laughter followed Magdalena as she cleared away her trash and disappeared towards her office down the hall, the material of her skirt emphasizing her best feature and the subtle sway of her hips.

Shaking her head and laughing as she responded to a few more emails, Avalon rolled over to her short bookcase and found her project planner, flipping to the page on her newest piece and exhibit as she rolled back. Let the week begin.

* * *

Leslie Shay was a woman on a mission as she ducked around corners and through the hallways of Firehouse Fifty-One, sweeping her gaze around the break room as she searched out her 'target.' Lieutenant Matthew Casey knew something and he was deliberately keeping it from her which was a big, no huge, no-no. The fact that she had already changed into her uniform gave her more time to search, as well as the fact that she was forgoing her coffee. Her eyebrows darting up when she spotted him behind a copy of the morning paper she smirks, walking over and pulling him away from their coworkers by his ear, dragging him to the little corner where most private conversations seemed to take place.

His protests falling on deaf ears, Matt kept his fighting to a minimum, silently wondering whether the blonde had finally gone crazy. Rubbing at the side of his head when she released him Matt stood still, watching as she leaned against the wall and glared at him. When she didn't say anything he rolled his eyes.

"What did I do this time?"

Pink lips curled into a slight snarl. "That's what I would like to know! After shift the other day Kelly was all mopey and depressed and I went out to get another six pack, only to come back and find a box on the stoop. He opened it, got this stupid look on his face and walked off munching on cookies without sharing! The note that was included said to thank you and signed simply with 'A.' Who the hell is 'A?' Why should he be thanking you, and why didn't I get any damn cookies?" Shay ranted.

Matt snorted, shoulders shaking with poorly concealed laughter, even though he was semi-ecstatic that he had won the argument with Avalon. "A is just an old friend of ours from when we were at the Fire Academy and I don't know why it would say to thank me. And as for the cookies_, __**I**_want to know why **_I _**never got any. Now can I go finish my coffee?"

As he walked away Shay growled beneath her breath, determined to find out who 'A' was and why Matt seemed infinitely pleased with himself at the mention of them. Stalking after him to the break room and pouring her mug of coffee she sat on the couch beside Mouch, sulking like a teenager. Flipping Kelly off his he sauntered by, Shay ignored his chuckling and reached for a magazine. She would get to the bottom of this.

* * *

Walking out of the museum worn out and with her head spinning Avalon fought a yawn and a feeling of accomplishment at everything that had been discussed and worked out during the staff meeting, having earned the green light to begin assembling her latest exhibit. Her keys jingling in her palm as she made her way to the staff parking lot she slowed when she heard Lena behind her, calling her name and rushing down the stairs towards her. Coming to a standstill and waiting she laughed as the taller, darker woman swore in what Avalon gathered to be Greek, sidestepping a large crack in the sidewalk as she came to a rest at Avalon's side. Opening her mouth to say something Magdalena was cut off when the sound of sirens cut through the air, drawing their attention towards the left as an ambulance and two other rescue vehicles approached. Noticing that Ambulance 61 was in the lead, followed by Truck and Squad, Avalon snorted in amusement and raised a hand to wave as they drew closer, a hand popping out of Squad 3 to return the gesture as it passed. Unconsciously she moved closer to the edge of the side walk, shouting a 'Be careful' as Squad began to make a left hand turn about two hundred yards up the road.

"What was that about?" Lena questioned once the sound of sirens evaporated, her eyes squinted against the setting sun as she and Avalon resumed walking towards the staff lot.

"What was what?" Avalon returned, releasing a sigh of relief as she removed the elastic that bound her hair in a neat bun.

"The waving and the shouting, what was with it?"

"I just know a couple of them and I got worried for a second." chewing her bottom lip, she used the remote for her Maxima to unlock it, hovering at its side.

"Know a couple…" Lena's eyes sparked. "Was he there?"

"If you are referring to my ex, I don't know his shift rotations so he very well could be and if he was then he was on Squad truck."

"You do realize we are going to talk about him someday, right?" Lena teased, leaning against her little Acura which had been parked beside Avalon.

"When do you plan on the torture?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "Don't be dramatic. You mentioned that Em was sleeping over at your brother's because she wanted to do some project with the girls, right? So how about Friday? I'll bring the wine," Lena offered.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Oh sweetie, it's funny to think that you would even entertain the possibility; I'll be by around seven and probably won't leave until morning," Lena said cheekily, opening the passenger's side of her car and dropping her purse inside. "See you tomorrow, Ava."

Playfully flipping off Lena, Ava climbed into the driver's seat of her car and keyed up the ignition, idling as she buckled her seat belt and waited for Lena to pull out. Mulling over the concept of talking about her relationship with Kelly to someone who wasn't eleven and crushing on a member of a boy band or television show, Avalon shrugged, it did sound appealing. Shifting into reverse she couldn't help wonder if Kelly really was on shift and if he was one of the members in the Squad truck as it zipped by.


	9. Chocolate and Wine Therapy

A/N: So here is the next chapter :) Let me know what you guys think- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I own nothing sadly except Avalon, Emily, Lena, and the Carson's.

* * *

The knock on the apartment door came promptly at seven Friday night, followed shortly thereafter by Lena calling through the front door for Avalon to 'get her pretty little ass over here and let her in.' Shuffling along in her slightly childish, pale blue Carebear slippers, Avalon muttered under her breath as she swung the door open, leaning against the jamb as Lena stood on the other side with a bottle of wine in one hand and a package of dark chocolate raspberries and cherries in the other. Forgoing an attempt to protest Avalon sighed as she moved out of the doorway, watching as Lena sauntered inside the apartment and directly to the kitchen, routing through the cupboards until she found two long stemmed glasses.

Rolling her eyes and shuffling along to sit on the sofa Avalon upped the volume on the TV where 'Into the Wild' was in its last few moments, recounting the tale of Christopher McCandless's death in the harsh Alaskan wilderness. Thankful that Lena at least had the courtesy to allow her to finish her movie Avalon turned in her seat, drawing her knees to her chest, legs crossed at the ankles as she accepted a glass of the fragrant red wine, turning off both the television and the DVD player with a mental note to remove the disk after their discussion. Waiting for Lena to break the silence she took her first sip, savoring the robust taste as it teased her taste buds and slid down her throat.

"You realize why I am here right?" Lena started off with, toeing off the high heels she had worn, sighing in relief as they dropped to the hardwood.

Skipping over the dramatics Avalon nodded, already handing over the albums. "You are here for a full on explanation of who I was married to, what the marriage was like and why you weren't told about it before despite the fact that we have only known each other for nearly two months. Does that sum it up?"

"Just about," Lena retorted, flipping through the albums and uttering little comments under her breath. Reading the little blurbs under or beside the photos she was able to put together some of the pieces. "Alright I have a basic idea from the pictures; details please."

Launching into a more detailed version of the story she told Emily, Avalon recounted every when, where, why, and how of her teenage years. Explaining where she had gone wrong with Kelly and how for nearly six months post divorce she had spent every day sick with regret as she went to classes and pretended that she was okay, Avalon finished off her first glass of wine and reached to pour a second, munching on chocolates during her pauses. Distantly thankful that she had managed to down a few pieces of toast with jelly before Lena's arrival, Avalon took another sip as Lena seemed to analyze everything that had been said.

"Well damn," Lena finally said, refilling her own glass. "That is…I really have nothing to say." Considering Lena always had something to say Avalon would take this moment as a given.

"Do you see now why I did not want to talk about it?" Avalon asked softly, her voice almost impossible to hear.

"Yes and I am sorry for pushing. I can't believe it and it is a lot to take in and…wow." Lena shook her head. "And what was it like to see him again after all this time?"

Her cheeks puffing out as she held her breath, Avalon scrunched her nose and exhaled, nostrils flaring. "It was weird. I had a feeling it was him when I got in there but I kept hoping it wasn't while everyone introduced themselves. It was like he knew who I was though because he just kept staring at me and when he did introduce himself he sounded flustered. After that all I wanted to do was get out of there and get to my parents, which was okay until I decided to get some of my stuff out of the attic and Emily asked to look through my old albums. She picked up the fact that the lieutenant she knew and Kelly were the same people pretty quickly and I kind of had to explain it to her after she woke up and found me sobbing on the couch in the middle of the night. I still have no idea why I just broke down like that," Avalon ranted, shaking her head. "And then I guess they responded to a call that was near identical to the accident that killed our friend Katie and his best friend slash co worker called me asking to talk to him because his roommate called in a panic saying that he had locked himself in his room and refused to talk about the accident. Freakin' Matt accused me of being a heartless bitch, texted me Kelly's number and left me fuming as I watched TV with Emily, who heard everything."

Lena's neat, dark eye brows rose so high that they almost disappeared into her hair line. "And then what happened?"

"Then Em stole my phone, called Kelly and then hung up immediately after he picked up, resulting in him calling me and accusing me of doing it. Somehow I ended up on the phone with him for about half an hour and leaving a batch of cookies for him. I am still confused on how that happened."

"You brought him cookies?" An incredulous furrow formed on Lena's smooth forehead.

Avalon immediately went on defense. "Well yeah; we were talking and he was upset and he always did have a sweet tooth when he got upset. He had mentioned polishing off his roommates three pints of ice cream and I had extra cookies and I figured they would make him feel better." Avalon physically smacked herself on the forehead. "Crap, when I put it that way it sounds weird."

Lena outright laughed, leaning forward to refill Avalon's wine only to be waved away. "It sounds like something alright," she smirked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Avalon threw her pillow at her friend, knowing that she was right. Groaning she dropped back, resting her head on the arm of the couch, an arm thrown over her eyes. "What am I going to do?" she whined playfully.

* * *

Playing with his phone, shifting it hand to hand, Kelly sat in the officer's quarters wearing a frown and a flush. With the address he had acquired from Antonio Dawson burning both in his mind and his contact list, he debated whether he had time to make a quick trip across the four blocks between 1215 Dante Road and Firehouse Fifty- One. Eyeing the Tupperware container that he had retrieved from his locker he scowled at it, half hoping it would refill itself with the oatmeal raisin cookies that it had contained and half hoping that its owner would appear before him so he could return it. His thoughts bouncing between returning it himself and calling Avalon to pick it up he cursed himself for being so nervous. She was just his ex-wife! He quickly and silently amended that statement; she was ex-wife, the one that had gotten away, and the one he had never truly gotten over except for the close call with Renee Whaley. His head spinning, he allowed a small cheer as the dispatch alarm went off and as he ran to gear up, he instinctively grabbed the container, wondering if he could get Capp to make a pit stop on the way back to the firehouse post call.

Leaving his turnouts in the idling Squad truck as he peered both ways and darted across Dante Road, Kelly eyed the duplex before him curiously and opted to hang right, letting himself in through the gate and taking the walkway to the heavy wooden door that sealed off the residence. Selecting the second name from the buzzer system to the left of the door he depressed the button, listening to the static as 'Carson, A' rang. Rocking on his heels and considering to just leave the container on the stoop like she did for him, he flinched when the static kicked back up, cut through by a voice chiming a soft 'hello' through a series of giggles.

Clearing his throat he scratched at the back of his head. "Uh, Ava? It's Kelly, I have your Tupperware?"

There was a shriek from the other end and then the sound of Avalon shushing someone. "Kelly? How do you know where I live?"

"I had a friend look you up. Do you want me to leave it on the stoop? I have to get back to Fifty One," he rushed; face flushing as he heard someone whispering on the other end of the system.

"Give me a sec!"

* * *

Fighting with Lena as she raced to the front window above the kitchen sink, Avalon swore when she noticed the idling Squad truck and the man standing awkwardly on her stoop. Holy crap on a cracker! It really was Kelly! Her thoughts vacillating between asking him to leave her container and going down to get it herself, Avalon noticed Lena moving towards the front door and swore, skidding across the floor and against the door.

"I'll go grab it," she panted, eyeing her friend cautiously as she dodged Lena's attempt to get around her. Slipping around Lena and hoping the slightly tipsy woman would stay upstairs Avalon took the stairs two at a time, trying to make as little noise as possible knowing that her landlords had already likely gone to bed. Biting her tongue as she nearly ran into the front door she partially swung it open, poking her head around the edge of it and glancing at Kelly.

"Hi," she greeted awkwardly which he returned just as awkwardly.

Standing there in companionable silence he thrust the Tupperware towards her after a moment of staring at it. "I figured I would bring this back; thanks again for the cookies."

"You're welcome," she paused. "Thank you for bringing back my Tupperware." She waited. "Should I be worried about the possibility of having a stalker or was this a sort of one time only thing?" Teasing was good, she surmised.

Teasing seemed to work because Kelly let out a breath. "One time only…unless you would like me to come back," he grinned, white teeth flashing in his shadowed face, the boyish gap causing butterflies to dance in Avalon's abdomen.

"I think once is good enough for now," Avalon chuckled, hugging her container. "Well, you should probably get back." Part of her did not want him to leave, but she squashed that part down, mentally stomping on it and shoving it away. "Thanks again."

Kelly glanced over his shoulder and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck and taking a step back, stumbling off the stoop before quickly righting himself. "I probably should. I uh, I…just…bye Ava," he stuttered uncharacteristically, waving over his shoulder as he crossed the street in a hurry.

Watching him climb into the truck through the window of the now closed door Avalon leaned against it and giggled like a teenager, clapping a hand over her mouth, wide eyed. Knowing that Lena was either watching the exchange from her window or that she was waiting impatiently at the top of the stairs for Avalon's return Ava ran a hand through her hair and over her face, returning to her apartment and letting herself in.

Closing the door behind her Avalon couldn't help but laugh as Lena rushed towards her, gripping her shoulders and shaking her as she demanded a play by play of what had gone on in the two minutes that they had been separated. Allowing Lena to continue her inquisition Avalon blushed, smiling softly as she day dreamed, replaying the last ten minutes. It had been awkward, teasing and just like when they were younger. Standing before her best friend in her pajamas and Carebear slippers, Avalon felt like a teenager once more, wondering if the captain of the football team had noticed her.

* * *

A/N: Let me know what you think :)


	10. Meeting in the Freezer

A/N: I apologize for the wait on this chapter, but midterms got in the way for a bit. I make no promises on when the next chapter will be up, but it will hopefully happen before next Friday, aka, the end of January. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, and favorited or followed up to this point. And for those who have commented about how odd of a name Avalon is, there is an explanation on that in this chapter. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I still don't own Chicago Fire, the only things I own are Avalon, Emily, Lena and the Carson's

* * *

Avalon winced, her head pounding as she strolled through the grocery store with Emily prattling on at her side, the wheels of the carriage squeaking obnoxiously. With her new exhibit under way she had been fielding phone calls about it all week, and even though it was a Saturday her phone was ringing. After spending the evening before with Lena and going next door to pick Emily up that morning she had been hoping for a low key afternoon, and as her eyes flicked between her shopping list and the shelves before her all she wanted to do was go home, never mind the fact that she would be babysitting her nieces that evening. Swearing off wine for the foreseeable future she checked the price of a two pound bag of the generic version of Cocoa crispies, asking Emily if she would prefer those or the same sized bag of generic Frosted Flakes. Receiving her answer in the form of a low mumble as Emily played Candy Crush on her older model iPod touch Avalon huffed, dropping the bag of chocolaty cereal into the carriage. Slipping a pen out of the base of her messy bun she checked cereal off her list, making a note of the final four items on her list; apples, ice cream, pizza rolls and Eggo waffles per Emily's request.

Moving towards the frozen foods section Avalon sorted out a bag of Honeycrisp and Gala apples, four of each, and placed them in the cart, continuing on easily. Rounding the corner onto an aisle comprised of industrial freezers she shivered, glancing down and opening her mouth to ask Emily a question only to find the eleven year old away from her side, darting up the aisle. Features hardening Avalon called after as loudly as she dared, flinching when Emily collided with a man who stood beside a lithe blonde woman, the two arguing in hushed tones before the Ben and Jerry's freezer.

"Lieutenant Severide!"Emily called, her voice clear even from the other end of the aisle. Well damn. And that must be Shay.

"Hey Em," she heard Kelly say as she watched him pick Emily up and give her a squeeze.

Relaxing slightly as he set her niece down and looped an arm around her shoulders, Avalon quickly chose a big bag of pizza rolls and a box of both plain and chocolate chip Eggo's. Pushing the carriage in the direction of the trio she rolled her neck, scrunching her shoulders and grimacing as her headache picked up once more. "Good morning, Kelly," she said loftily, keeping a minimum of four feet between them, the average radius which was considered as a person's personal space.

It really was weird how his eyes seemed to light up when he saw her. "Morning Ava," he grinned, a dimple forming at the right side of his mouth. "I don't know if you remember her, but this is my best friend Leslie Shay. Shay, this is Emily's aunt Avalon Carson."

The women shook hands.

"So, are you here replenishing your supply?" Avalon asked out of the blue after a moment of awkward silence, motioning to the cooler.

"How would you…" Shay trailed off. "Wait a minute; nicknames, little shy smiles, Avalon, Ava, 'A.' You're 'A?'" Shay deduced. "The cookie 'A?'"

"Uh…" Avalon stuttered unintelligently. "Yes?"

Shay looked between them suspiciously. "And you know Matt too?"

"We went to high school together," Kelly defended. "She Matt met around graduation." It was an embellishment but it was still partially true.

Emily took on a devious little smirk as Kelly and Avalon stuttered around their story, rocking on her heels as she listened to them attempt to explain it. Noticing that they were getting nowhere fast she sighed, noting that she would need to take matters into her own hands. Scheming had always been one of her strong suits and people often discredited her observational skills, brushing her presence off because she was a child. Well, everyone except her aunt, who knew that if she tried to hide something Emily would find it sooner rather than later, which was probably why Avalon was so blunt and honest with her. Rolling her blue eyes Emily turned to her aunt who was shifting awkwardly beside her.

"Aunt Ava?" she started. "Don't forget the Uncle Jase needs us back for three o'clock."

Shay seemed to perk up. "Oh! You're married?"

Emily internally cheered Shay on when a dark look flashed across Kelly's face, his eyes flicking to Avalon's left hand even as he answered the question. "Jase is Ava's brother, right Av?"

"He's older by nine years and we also have another brother who's about twelve and a half years older," Avalon shrugged.

"So you were the surprise?" Shay smirked.

"Let's just say I was an anniversary gift," Avalon responded, shuddering in disgust. "But anyways, Emily's right. I promised my brother I would babysit tonight so…"

"Right; it was nice to meet you Ava," Shay grinned, reaching over to hug the slightly taller red head. "Hopefully we will see and or speak to each other again in the near future."

Avalon nodded and excused herself as she reached around Kelly for the freezer containing Hood Ice Cream as she spoke. "It would be nice and hopefully it will be planned meaning that I won't be retrieving my niece or standing in the freezer section of the store." Preparing to reach for the cooler door she came to a halt as Kelly reached in and pulled out a carton of Mint Chocolate Chip; both her and Emily's favorite. "Thank you," she flushed.

The touch of large, tanned and calloused finger tips brushing against the smooth skin of her palm sent an electrical shock through Avalon's system, causing her to physically jump. Her lips forming the perfect 'oh' shape she chuckled childishly.

"You shocked me!" she exclaimed, holding the ice cream to her chest with a wide smile.

Kelly smiled and reached out, hand extended, as if to try and shock her again. Darting back a step Avalon laughed, head thrown back as she took the step to her carriage. The give and take was familiar, comforting, Kelly's amusement with the little electrical shocks being the main reason why Avalon now specifically looked for residences with minimal carpeting. The Law and Order theme song cut off any forthcoming comments, Ava's iPhone ringing from the side pocket of her purse.

Heaving a sigh Avalon reached for it as the ringing stopped and it chirped with a text message. "Well that's our cue. It was nice seeing you guys," she grinned, waving shyly. Turning to Emily she playfully perched her hands on her hips. "Are you ready munchkin?"

"Almost," Emily said, quickly hugging both Kelly and Shay around the waist. "Okay, now I'm ready."

Ignoring a twinge of something deep down within her gut, Avalon said her goodbyes once more, proceeding towards check out with Emily at her side, the idle chatter of the eleven year old the only thing that kept her from turning to glance over her shoulder in order to see if Kelly was watching her.

* * *

Helping to load the trunk of Kelly's car, Shay paused in storing a box of tampons, keeping her head down as she made an offhand comment. "So, Avalon is an odd name." Leaning against the carriage as Kelly hefted the last of their groceries into the trunk she waited for his reaction, sorely disappointed when all he did was shrug and scratch at the back of his head.

"If you knew her it would make some more sense. Ava is like, a quarter Irish, and her name has Celtic origins. But besides that, her maternal grandfather was a Professor of Medieval Literature at Northwestern and Avalon, which roughly translates to 'Island of Apples,' was the island paradise in the Celtic mythology of King Arthur's court where Arthur took refuge. When we were younger, Avalon was at the top of our class and was always reading."

"Sounds like she was smart."

Pausing at the driver's side door, Kelly rested his elbows atop of the car and looked at his roommate over the vehicle. "Avalon was book smart and not overly people smart," he said simply, a muscle in his jaw jumping. "She would have rather been reading where things ended in happy ever after or where things at least came to a neat conclusion; no loose ends. She was realistic but dreamed of things beyond the realm of possibility and where she would put others before herself, she was also always worrying about what others thought of her. She was sixteen when we graduated and still hovering between being a teen and an adult." He bit his lower lip. "To Ava everything was black and white, right or wrong with minimal shades of grey." Jingling his keys in his palm he got behind the wheel, pulling the door shut behind him before just sitting for a moment.

"How long were you with her?" Shay asked, intuition telling her they were more than just friends.

"If you can believe it, four years."

Shay winced at the look that seemed to unconsciously pass over Kelly's face. "Sorry."

Keying up the ignition and lowering the volume on the radio Kelly shrugged, checking his mirrors continuously as he began backing out, continually checking for anyone who wouldn't be paying attention. "It's not your place to apologize."

Silence enveloped the two like a cocoon, and as Kelly turned onto the main road from one of the many side streets, Shay sighed and shifted in her seat.

"You do realize I have so many questions right now, right?"

His fingers tightening on the steering wheel Kelly nodded. "I know."

* * *

A little bit of a cliffhanger but next chapter will definitely deal with Kelly's side of everything. Thank you again for reading- Alisabeth


	11. The He Said in He Said, She Said

A/N: So here is chapter eleven. This one did take me a while, primarily because it is from Kelly's "Point of View" and I have some trouble writing from the male perspective. This is the third attempt and I am relatively happy with it. Let me know what you guys think - Alisabeth

Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters or material

* * *

Water rolled in a rapid boil, the scent of tomato sauce wafting throughout the apartment as Leslie Shay stood at the stove, opting to make dinner for herself and her roommate rather than ordering in once more. Figuring that, if the clerk at the Chinese restaurant could identify her by order, it was time to cook for herself, she had chosen to work with one of her grandmother's old recipes. Praying that she didn't burn the sauce this time she lowered the volume on her iHome as she heard a vehicle pull into the driveway, humming along to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" as she added the pasta to its pot and lowered the heat. Absently waving over her shoulder as Kelly entered she reached for a wooden spoon, stirring both the sauce and the pasta as Kelly went directly to the refrigerator and pulled out two beers.

Accepting hers with a tip of the bottle she took a swig, swaying to the music. "So how was your visit with Georgie?" she asked as she adjusted the stove top once more, setting aside the spoon in favor of leaning against the island.

Kelly's typical smirk turned into a soft grin at the mention of the woman who had virtually become a surrogate mother for him. Over the last two years the older woman had been a breath of fresh air in the chaos of his life, bouncing back quickly after the death of the man she had been married to for going on thirty some-odd years. Drawn together by the dying proclamation of her husband Pete, they had been held together because of how Pete had said that Kelly was like the son he had always imagined, staying close because of Gerogie's motherly instincts and innate curiosity as well as the fact that Kelly had not had a mother in over four years, ever since his was defeated by breast cancer.

"It was great; we talked for awhile and then I fixed a few things on her car and she made some cupcakes," he chuckled. "And yes she sent some for you; they are in the container over there. She invited us to dinner on Sunday after shift and she says that she will be at the final 'Friends of Firefighters' barbecue."

Fist pumping exaggeratedly Shay checked the pasta once more and lifted it from the burner, carrying it to the colander that was already in the large, farmhouse style sink. "Can you set the island?" she asked as she leaned away from the cloud of steam that puffed up as she dumped the pasta. "So…Avalon?"

Kelly hesitated as he set two plates on the island and a set of silverware beside each. "So we are really going to talk about her?"

He didn't have to look up to know that Shay had snorted in amusement as she began to mix the sauce and pasta in one pot.

"I have known you for five years and you have gotten away with not saying anything for all five of them, you're spilling the details, even if I have to break out the whiskey."

"But we are on shift tomorrow," Kelly said, trying to get out of it.

That only caused Shay to throw out a very Kelly-like smirk. "Then I guess you better start talking." Hefting the full pot over to the hot plate on the island, she served them both, climbing up on her stool and turning at an angle so she partially faced Kelly. "Get talking."

Making a face as he chewed, Kelly tried to stall for as long as possible, yelping when Shay smacked him over the back of the head for trying to do so. "Hey!" rubbing at the back of his head he took a sip of his beer and glared. "Alright already, sheesh. Anyways…I was a week away from turning sixteen when I met Ava; she was fourteen, and we were assigned as partners for an English assignment. I was an all-state quarterback and she was literally the top of the class and she didn't want to work with me. It was the end of our sophomore year, I needed the grade and she was unsuccessful in trying to get a new partner. I pleaded with her, proved that I could do the work and we managed to get an A- with equal effort. We hung out some over the summer and I asked her out right before football season started in August. We dated the entirety of junior and senior year, went to both of our proms together and she wore my jersey during the games." He paused, cheeks puffed out as he exhaled through his nose. "I really don't know how it happened; one day I was on my way home from working at my uncle's shop and the next thing I know I'm in the little jewelry store that used to be on 5th. I got her a ring, just a simple silver infinity ring, and held onto it until graduation. I proposed after the ceremony and had our friend Katie waiting in the shadows with her camera."

"You proposed at your high school graduation?" she questioned, asking for the concept to be cleared up, her mind racing with images from both the times she had seen Avalon Carson.

"Yes and we were married by the Justice of the Peace the next day." He could tell that Shay was processing the information, the look on her face eerily similar to the one she wore when assessing all aspects of a call. Giving her a moment he continued. "Our reception was at her parent's house, our honeymoon at my grandfather's cabin at the lake. When we got back from our honeymoon we found a small apartment and I was working part time while going to the Fire Academy. Ava had deferred the scholarship's that she had been offered, claiming that she was taking a year to just be a wife. She worked full time at a book store down the street from our apartment. I will admit now that I underestimated her sacrifice and that for the almost two years that she stayed I could have been a better husband. I spent so much time at the academy and working and taking shifts at Fifty-one that our marriage fell to the way side. I'd pull extra shifts to prove that I was good enough and then come home to find her asleep on the couch waiting for me, a dinner plate in the microwave."

"What was your downfall?" Shay asked softly, dishing out second helpings to both of them.

Kelly's jaw clenched, a muscle jumping in his cheek. "The death of our best friend Katie."

Before Shay could ask who 'Katie' was, he continued.

"Katelyn Foster was Ava's best friend throughout the entirety of high school and mine since our sophomore year. We did everything together, and she was the one who had convinced Ava to give me a chance on the English project. She was there every step of the way. One day when I was on shift we were dispatched to a roll over call where the driver was dead on scene and they needed an extraction. Pulling up all I could feel was this sense of dread churning my stomach and when we stopped I recognized the vehicle right away. Katie swerved to miss a kid in the road, flipped her car and died on impact. Matt had to literally pull me away from the scene and I was sent home before shifts end. I wandered for a couple hours and when I got home, Avalon cried about how Katie was dead and I made the mistake of saying 'yeah, I know, who do you think pulled her body out.' The look on her face was…." He was pale as a sheet, face drained of all color. "Never mind the fact that I didn't go to the funeral because I had signed up for an extra shift. I never told her this, partly because in truth I don't think I could handle the funeral, but I tried to get out of it, but I couldn't find anyone to cover it. Two days after the funeral she left and spent a week living with her parents. I came home after shift that next Saturday and found a wad of cash on the table and her stuff gone. I figured when I got the divorce papers in the mail two months later that she wasn't coming back and that she had settled at one of the schools that had offered her a full ride."

"What a bitch! Who leaves like that? You didn't go after her and say something?" Shay exclaimed, putting leftovers into containers and then filling the dishwasher.

"I took her leaving as that I wasn't as good as a husband as I had thought I was and threw myself into work which is probably how I made Squad so quickly. Ava had given up college for me and I returned the gesture by ignoring her so…I figured after a few months I could try to get in touch but her number had been changed and her brother's refused to talk to me. I appealed to her father but, well, he wasn't so keen on the idea and I wasn't about to go toe to toe with one of the better Chicago Detectives."

"Her dad is a detective?"

"He teaches at the Police Academy now after being shot on duty last year."

Shay nodded. All this new information floated around in her mind and while she was distracted Kelly slipped upstairs, peering over his shoulder when he heard her exhaled, shaking her blonde head. Leaving her to think he eased into his room, reclining in his desk chair and reaching for the folder of ungraded Fire Academy essays that he needed to finish reviewing. Routing through the center drawer for a red pen, he paused as his fingers brushed a blank, creased envelope. Hesitating, he clenched his fingers in a fist and moved them away from the envelope that contained a picture of him and Ava. His fingers closing around the shaft of the pen he shook his head and merely stared at the stack of papers. With a sigh he pulled the first one from the top of the stack, wincing when he noticed the name on it. He was going to be in for a long night, he mulled as he began reading about proper procedure for a three alarm fire with victims trapped in an unstable structure. Uncapping the pen and beginning to make small notes in the margins, Kelly hummed beneath his breath, unconsciously choosing Phil Collins 'You'll Be in My Heart.'


	12. Sunny with a Chance of Crazy

A/N: Hey guys, I apologize for the wait. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope for any of my readers who have continuously been hit by this season's snow that you guys stay warm. The whole locker/hockey puck bit in this chapter is a moment from my reality, and let me tell you, i still haven't lived those moments down with my family. Please continue to Read/Review/Favorite and follow. Have a great week- Alisabeth

Disclaimer: Once again I am in no way affiliated with NBC, Dick Wolf or the show 'Chicago Fire.' I do not own the rights to any of the songs mentioned in this chapter, but I do lay claim to any and all original characters.

* * *

Avalon reclined on her elbows, face turned towards the rays of a sunny October morning, as she listened to the live music coming from the temporary stage set up part way across the park. With Emily laying beside her, head in her lap, and her other nieces settled around her on the picnic blanket, she bopped along to a cover of U2's "With or Without You," ignoring her brother and her sister in law chatting behind her. It was nice to be spending a Sunday away from cleaning and last minute homework help, book reports and research. Children laughed from where they played a game of touch football a few yards to her left, the scent of grilled meat teasing her senses from a nearby barbecue. Castiel yipped quietly from where he was curled in a furry ball beneath Emily's arm, petite fingers trailing idly through the fur of the chocolate lab/German shepherd mix. Humming as the song switched to The Police's "Every Breath You Take," Avalon blinked as she opened her eyes, glancing over her shoulder when Ariel said her name.

Having not heard what had been said before her name Avalon cocked an eyebrow and grinned sheepishly. "Can you repeat that please?"

Ariel adjusted her raven pony tail as her blue eyes danced, containing no evidence that she had pulled a twelve hour shift the day before at Lakeshore Memorial Hospital's Pediatric ward. Despite the fact that she had received a large trust fund and an estate fund from her later grandparent's, Ariel still worked at the hospital, saying that she did it for the children. "I was just saying how nice it is to see you relaxed."

Stretching languidly Avalon grinned, balanced on one arm as she reached for her bottle of water. "It feels good too," she chuckled. "Thanks for inviting Em and I." Shifting so that she was sitting up completely she was in the process of twisting the cap off her water when something smacked her in the side of the head, the texture and shape reminding her of when she would play football with her brothers. Pain automatically blossomed around her temple, spreading across her skull. Since she wasn't 'seeing stars' Avalon assumed all it was going to be was a small bump on the head, though Ariel jumped right into nurse mode.

Fingers probed at Avalon's scalp as she absently answered the common questions asked following a head injury, huffing exasperatedly as she tried to ensure her little family that she was fine. People had begun to whisper, a small crowd beginning to form as a little boy slinked over quietly, his blonde hair reflecting the sun as he apologized for hitting her with his football because his little brother had missed the toss.

Eyes squinted and desperately wishing that she had a pair of sunglasses and some Advil, Avalon brushed it off. "Don't worry, sweetie, it was just an accident. Thank you for apologizing though."

The sound of a male voice calling out 'Lee Henry' over the din of the music caused the little boy to shudder and Emily to sit up when she recognized the voice. "Mr. Hermmann?"

The father and firefighter winced as he stepped closer, noticing the young girl who had hung around Fifty-One sitting with her aunt, who was clearly trying to down play the fact that his son had smacked her in the head with a fly away football. His already pale complexion becoming even lighter, he opened his mouth to apologize but just received a chuckle in reply.

"I am fine Mr. Herrmann, trust me. A football to the head is nothing compared to some of the concussions I have had before," Avalon tried to assure. "Being knocked out by a locker door and concussed by a hockey puck is much more painful."

His mouth opening and closing like a fish, Herrmann nodded in a daze, uttering another apology as he walked his son back to where they had been previously.

* * *

Christopher Herrmann was baffled, shaking his head as he took his seat beside his wife Cindy and opposite of Lieutenants Severide and Casey, Georgie Tanner, and his buddy Jeff Clarke sitting on his right. Deftly reaching for his bottle of beer and taking a sip, he hesitated with the bottle part way to his lips when Cindy asked if everything was okay with Lee.

"He managed to hit someone in the head with the football but she said she was okay. Oh! It was Ms. Carson from the firehouse, Emily's aunt?"

The moment the words came from Herrmann's mouth both Matt and Kelly looked up, a grin spreading across Mrs. Tanner's face.

"Ava's here?" Kelly asked, his face flushing for one of the few times his coworkers had ever seen.

"Through the trees over there, about five rows back from the stage," Herrmann answered, his curiosity peaked.

Kelly's face darkened another shade as he finished his own beer and excused himself, kissing Georgie on the cheek and slapping a snickering Matt on the back of the head. Muttering a pep talk to himself as he stepped away, Kelly ignored all the eyes that seemed to follow him as he cut through the trees.

* * *

"Son of a…" Each of the Carson's turned to Jase as he cut himself off, literally biting his tongue as he glared in the direction of the tree line.

Emily followed his gaze and sat up once more. "Lieutenant Severide!" she beamed, hopping to her feet and waving.

Though he was a few yards away it was clear to Ava that her ex had muttered quiet the expletive, his eyes widening when Jase stood up beside her. Groaning under her breath she stood, wavering slightly but covering it up quickly. Ariel was already hissing at Jase beneath her breath, Sarah and Taylor watching curiously. Emily had given up waiting as she near skipped towards Kelly, winding an arm around his waist and hugging him, leading him back to their blanket.

"Uncle Jase, this is Lieutenant Severide, he sat with me when the teacher forgot me at the firehouse," Emily introduced, a sneaky smile playing on her lips. She could see the twitch in her uncle's eye, watching his lips quirk downwards into a scowl. The look he wore now was remarkably similar to the one the Beast wore in Beauty and the Beast.

His jaw clenched and his teeth grinding, Jase spoke through the straight line of his lips. "Oh really?" Voice completely emotionless, he brushed past Avalon, nearly knocking her over. "What do you want Severide?" he demanded.

Kelly held his hands in the universal sign of surrender. "My buddy said that Ava was hit on the head and I just wanted to see if she was alright."

"You didn't come to see if she was alright eleven years ago, why is now different?" Jase snarked.

Ava opened her mouth to protest that statement and was cut off by Kelly.

"I was an idiot back then and I…" Kelly in turn was cut off by Jase.

"Back then?"

"You don't know me now Jase," Kelly glared. "Look, I just wanted to make sure Ava didn't need medical attention. If she does I can call my roommate over here to check her out."

"My wife has already taken care of it; you have your answer, now scram."

Ava attempted to enter the conversation once more and huffed when Emily intervened this time.

"Uncle Jase, Lieutenant Severide is just trying to be nice."

Jase snorted. "You don't know everything Emily, please stay out of this."

Emily stomped her foot and Avalon placed a hand to her head. Great, her brother just had to stir the shit.

"What don't I know? That Lieutenant Severide and Aunt Ava were married? That she left? That their best friend died and Kelly was the first responder? I know more than you think Uncle Jase." The snarky tone that had been absent for so long had returned, making all four adults wince as Sarah and Taylor watched in rapt fascination. Though Jase and Ariel had less than six months experience with Emily and still knew little about her, Avalon had spent the past eleven years watching her grow up- from the Cabbage Patch kids and Caillou phase, the Disney Princess phase and even the Junie B. Jones phase. If there was one thing about Emily, it was that she was incredibly stubborn, and that she didn't take insults very well. Mature for her age, she often continued under the radar but had a voice and opinion of steel when someone tried to degrade her or someone else.

Clutching the leash she held tighter, Avalon settled back on the picnic blanket and shook her head, the migraine she had only gaining momentum.

"How do you know that Emily?" Ariel asked softly, glancing between her husband and sister in law.

"Because Aunt Ava was acting weird after we bumped into Lieutenant Severide and had pulled out some old photo albums…I got curious and simply asked. And I was there when Lieutenant Casey called and asked Aunt Ava to talk to the lieutenant because the firehouse had gone to a call that was the same as Ms. Katie's." Emily spoke with a tone that blatantly screamed 'I'm smarter/more observant than you give me credit for.'

Avalon blanched as Jase turned to her and Kelly raised a dark eyebrow, the shining sun catching the distinguishing strands of silver at his temple's which he had always teasingly claimed she had caused at least a few times. For a moment there was no arguing, merely the sound of the cover band playing Bryan Adams' "Summer of 69." Well crap. Her brother merely shook his head and dropped to the seat of his cargo shorts on the picnic blanket. The expression he wore was unreadable, his usually expressive eyes shuttered.

An awkward silence cloaked the group and Avalon shook her head, instantly regretting it. "Can I speak now?" she questioned, her voice hardly heard over the thrum of a guitar.

Jase sighed, Ariel nodded, Emily grinned cheekily and Kelly merely turned his head back in her direction having watched her out of his peripheral the entire time he had interacted with her brother.

"Thank you. Jase, you honestly need to stop underestimating Emily; she's more observant than I was at her age and I was the one considered a child genius. Kelly, thank you for coming over here, but I am fine. Ariel, who is a nurse, checked me for a concussion and so far it seems like a mere bump to the head. I don't need Shay to check me out; I just need some Advil and a chance to sit quietly. You can go back to the cook out now." Acknowledging the quirk of one of Kelly's eyebrows with the shift of both her own, she threw her patented 'I can handle this' look at those around her.

"You know how to find me if you need anything," Kelly uttered reluctantly, sounding halfway between questioning her and stating a fact. Waiting until she nodded, he backed away slowly and retreated through the trees, giving Emily a quick squeeze before he left.

Jase merely scowled, the expression seemingly etched into his face. Waiting until Kelly was out of sight he turned to Avalon. "Are you ready to go home or are you interested in staying for a little while longer?"

Turning to Ariel, Avalon shifted in her lavender colored Converse sneakers. "Do you have any Advil in your purse?"

Rifling through the large tote bag she had brought along Ariel shook her head. "Not today; I've been meaning to refill my to-go bottle but it keeps slipping my mind."

Avalon shrugged. "No biggie." She turned to regard her brother. "I can stay if you want to but if not I would enjoy going home and taking some Advil and a warm bath."

Jase's eyes flicked in the direction of where Kelly had disappeared before he pushed to his feet. "I'll take Castiel if you fold the blanket," he bargained, a small smile tilting the corners of his lips upward.

Her own lips quirking as Emily reluctantly passed over the puppy to herd her cousins off the blanket Avalon agreed, crouching to pick up the fabric to fold. Sandwiched between her family with two members on each side as they left the park she bumped hips with Taylor and Emily, holding the blanket to her chest as she just barely avoided glancing over her shoulder in search of Kelly.

* * *

A/N: In the words of Bugs Bunny "That's all folks."


End file.
